i 



MEDITATIONS AND MORAL SKETCHES. 
|ij ill ©ttijat. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY 



JOHN, MARQUIS OF ORMONDE, K. P. 



" M. Guizot has recently collected his essays on religion, philosophy, aucl education 
into a single volume, under the title of 'Meditations and Moral Studies.' This -work, 
which at present is scarcely known in England, deserves particular attention." — 
Quarterly Review, No. 187, 



DUBLIN : 

HODGES AND SMITH, 104, GRAFTON STREET. 

1855. 



DUBLIN: 
PRINTED BY R. D. WEBK, 
«T. BRUNSTVICK-ST. 



Cranslator^ flwfare. 



The three following Essays, although written some 
time back, appear to bear so strongly on a ques- 
tion daily and hourly discussed among ourselves, 
that I make but one apology for presenting them 
in an English form, which is to the illustrious 
author, whose sentiments (notwithstanding all the 
attention I have given to the task) I cannot but 
fear I may yet have failed in representing. 



The Translation contained in the following pages 
originated in the simple desire to facilitate the 
access to sentiments deemed beneficial. 

He who undertook this pleasing and benevolent 
task, has been removed from this earthly scene. 
Let it be hoped that this solemn truth may acid 
interest to his labours for others, and that his 
earnest wishes for their benefit may be in some 
measure realized. 



PEEF ACE. 



WHEN I collected these moral sketches, which were 
written at different times and under varying circum- 
stances, I did not think that I needed to add anything 
to them. A recent event, however, has determined me, 
in now publishing them, to say a few words more. 

Having been called upon on the 30th of last April to 
take the chair at a meeting of the Protestant Bible 
Society, I expressed myself in these terms : — 

" What is after all, speaking religiously, the great 
question, the most important question which at present 
occupies the minds of men ? It is the question in debate 
between those who acknowledge and those who deny 
a supernatural, certain, and sovereign order of things, 
although inscrutable to human reason. The question in 
dispute, to call things by their right names, between 
supernaturalism and naturalism. On the one side, un- 
believers, pantheists, pure rationalists, and sceptics of 
all kinds. On the other, Christians. 

"Amongst the first, the best still allow to the statue 
of the Deity, if I may make use of such an expression, 
a place in the world and in the human soul; but to the 

B 



6 



PREFACE. 



statue only, — an image, a marble. God himself is no 
longer there. Christians alone possess the living God. 

" It is the living God whom we need ! Our present 
and future safety requires that faith in supernatural order, 
that respect for and submission to supernatural order 
should again pervade the world and the human soul, — 
the greatest minds as well as the simplest, the most 
elevated classes as well as the most humble. The truly 
efficacious and regenerating influence of religious belief 
depends on this condition. Without it, all is superficial, 
almost worthless. 

" We may, at this day, with safety strive to re-animate 
and propagate the Christian faith ; for liberty — religious 
and civil liberty — is abroad to prevent faith begetting 
tyranny and oppression of the conscience — another sort 
of impiety. The friends of liberty of conscience may 
fearlessly return to the God of the Christian; there are 
no longer, nor will there ever henceforth be, captives or 
slaves around his altars. Let, then, Christian faith and 
piety return ; they will bring back in their train neither 
injustice nor violence. Doubtless, much care must 
be taken and many contests sustained, in order that 
religious liberty may be preserved unharmed in the 
midst of growing religious fervour; but this beautiful 
harmony will be attained, and will do honour to our 
time. Between Christians of different communions 
there may exist henceforth but those struggles of free 
faith and piety, which alone are permitted by the law 
of God, and are alone worthy of His attention." 



PREFACE. 



7 



These words have been remarked upon, and either 
approved of or objected to, in very different senses, by 
philosophers and by christians. 

On the day after they had been uttered, Mr. Louis 
Veuillot said in FUnivers, — "Monsieur Guizot made a 
speech which we have read with a sentiment of respect 
and sympathy, mingled with some grief. It would be 
impossible for us to do otherwise than highly honour the 
man who makes, even a-propos of a movement which 
we do not approve and which is far from being good, so 
noble a profession of christian faith. It would be im- 
possible for us not to regret deeply that so great and 
generous a spirit, one so well formed to comprehend 
unity, and so naturally disposed to submit himself to 
it, not only does not perceive that he is out of place 
amidst the separated members of the mother church, but 
even takes the lead in a movement which has been 
and still is opposed strongly to the doctrine of that 
church. What is Christianity ? It is authority. What 
is Protestantism? It is free inquiry; and the Protestant 
Bible Society is the practice of free inquiry driven to its 
last and indefinite limit." 

On the same day M. Charles Gourand said in FOrdre — 
" Monsieur Guizot's speech breathes at once the spirit of 
faith in revelation and love of religious liberty. But 
he must conform his practice to his precepts. If it is 
thought that there exists no serious difference between 
a rationalist, however thoroughly convinced and honest 
he may be, whether called Plato, Descartes, or Leibnitz, 



8 



PREFACE. 



and an atheist; if it is thought that apart from the 
teaching of the church all religious belief is superficial 
and nearly vain ; then there is no room for hesitation, 
it is within the pale of the true church, of that great 
Catholic Church, which from St. Paul to De Maistre, has 
bent under the same discipline so many haughty spirits 
and great minds, that an asylum and pardon are to be 
sought. For if it be allowable to insinuate that atheism 
is logical rationalism, it is still more so to say that Pro- 
testantism is but inconsistent rationalism. In fact, either 
private judgment has the sway in matters of faith ; and has 
it entirely, for who can flatter himself that he can take 
a part in free enquiry and say to it, ' Thus far shalt thou 
go, and no further !' or else it is authority which bears 
rule. But neither can she, any more than private judg- 
ment, do so by halves ; she must have all or nothing. A 
compromise between the two systems is chimerical; 
fusion is still more hopeless, if possible, in religious than 
in political systems." 

I shall not discuss the matter ; I shall lay aside every 
personal question, every controverted point, every argu- 
ment. Controversy opens the abyss which it pretends 
to fill, for it adds the obstinacy of self-love to diffe- 
rences of opinion. To overcome objections raised by 
honourable and sincere men gives me but little pleasure. 
I have a higher desire. " I aspire to unite myself with 
them in the truth. Two ideas fill my mind, and predo- 
minate on this subject. I wish to set them forth in pure 
and bright light. If I succeed, if I can transfuse them 



PREFACE. 



9 



into other minds, they will do their own work, and 
render unnecessary the controversy from which I abstain. 

It would not be worth while to live if we gathered 
from a long life, no other fruit than a little experience 
and prudence in the affairs of this world, against the 
moment of leaving it. The prospect of human affairs, 
and the inward trials of the soul, afford brighter gleams, 
which spread themselves over the mysteries of nature 
and the destiny of man, and of this universe in the 
midst of which man is placed. I have received from 
practical life, deeper insight into these formidable ques- 
tions, than meditation and science have ever given me. 

The first and most important is this. The world and 
mankind do not explain themselves naturally and simply 
by themselves, by the sole virtue of the fixed laws which 
preside over them, or of the passing determinations 
which display themselves. Neither nature and her power, 
nor man and his acts, suffice to explain the prospect 
which human intellect contemplates or catches a glimpse 
of. 

Then, as nature and man are insufficient to explain 
themselves, it follows that they are equally so to 
govern themselves. The government of the universe 
and of the human race differs from that aggregate of 
natural laws and facts which human reason observes 
there, as much as from the accidental laws and facts 
which human liberty introduces. 

That is to say, that beyond the natural and human 
order which falls under our notice, is the supernatural 



10 



PREFACE 



and superhuman order which God directs and developes 
beyond the reach of our researches. 

And when man ceases to believe this to be the case, 
ceases to believe in this supernatural order, and to 
live under the influence of this belief, then disorder 
intrudes among men and societies of men, and there 
commits ravages which would infallibly lead to their 
destruction, did not the wise goodness of God restrain 
them in their faults, and render them incapable of abso- 
lutely withdrawing themselves from the empire of truth, 
much as they may misunderstand it. 

That the religious question is now fairly raised between 
those who, more or less explicitly and from a variety 
of motives, do not admit this supernatural order of 
things, that is, the greater number of philosophers 
whatever their denomination ; and those who really 
admit it, that is, all Christians ; is what no serious mind 
can deny. 

Do I mean then to put on a level and confound all 
who disallow supernatural order, whether unbelievers or 
sceptics, atheists or rationalists ? 

God forbid I should imagine, far less express, any- 
thing so absurdly and heinously wicked! I know 
the happy inconsistencies of the mind of man, and the 
clouds which, to the eyes of the most learned, cover 
the paths they are treading. Surely, between the 
impious man who denies God, and the rationalist who 
is satisfied that, without going further than nature 
leads, and taking for granted I know not what transforma- 



PREFACE. 



11 



tion, lie lias found and established a God, — the interval 
is immense; immense, doubtless, in the eye of divine 
justice, as well as of human equity. And such is our 
levity and intellectual depravity, that in this vast space 
eminent minds and ingenuous hearts may, and, alas ! 
probably always will be met, at every step between 
gross materialism and pure deism. The variety and 
forms of error are infinite and infinitely varied ; and man, 
when falling into it, makes infinite efforts to retain some 
fragments of truth ; and God permits him to succeed or 
honestly persuade himself he has done so, which will one 
day prove his excuse or else be to him a plank of safety. 

I admit all distinctions, all inequalities, all sincerity. 
I only affirm two things ; one, that all the philosophic 
schools of our day, different as may be their systems and 
merits, have this in common, that they deny this super- 
natural order, and strive to explain and govern man and 
the world without its aid ; the other, that where faith in 
this order does not exist, the bases of moral and social 
order are deeply and increasingly shaken, man having 
ceased to live in presence of the only power which 
really surpasses him, and which is able at once to satisfy 
and direct him. 

Natural order is the field open to man's knowledge. 
Supernatural order is so in degree to his faith and hope ; 
but knowledge does not penetrate it. In the order of 
nature man exercises a share of action and power ; in su- 
pernatural order he has but to submit. It has been said 
in the spirit of conciliation and peace, " Eeligion and 



12 



PREFACE. 



Philosophy are sisters who should mutually respect and 
protect each other." The words bear the stamp of the 
chimseras of human pride. Philosophy springs from 
man ; it is the work of his mind. Eeligion comes from 
God ; man receives it, and often alters it after reception, 
but he does not create it. Eeligion and philosophy are 
not sisters. They are daughters, the one of "Our Father 
which is in Heaven," the other of mere human genius. 
And their condition in this world is no more equal than 
their origin. Authority is the apanage of religion; 
liberty is that of philosophy. 

I now approach the second of the dominant ideas, 
more than ever essential to true order, and which I 
wish to bring prominently forward. 

" Christianity," says M. Veuillot, " is authority." It 
is true ; Christianity is authority, but it is not authority 
only; it is the entire man, all his nature and all his 
destiny. Now, moral obedience is the nature and 
destiny of man; that is, obedience in a state of liberty. 
God created man to obey His laws ; he created him free 
that he might morally obey. Liberty, like authority, is of 
divine institution ; the work of man is revolt and tyranny. 

In the social state, authority and liberty need protec- 
tion, and both have a right to it. There is need of 
control, both for the governors and the governed, for 
both are men. Hence political laws and institutions 
which now sustain, now limit power; that is, which 
decide on what conditions and by what means authority 
is to be exercised and liberty secured. 



PREFACE. 



13 



What is the measure of authority necessary for 
Government, what the extent of liberty possible in 
human society? What are the means of action, what 
the pledges to be given alike to authority and religion ? 
Matters depending on circumstances, variable according 
to the times, the social condition, the manners, races, 
and different degrees of civilization amongst nations. 
It belongs to the politician to solve these questions. 

When Christianity appeared in the world, appeal was 
first made to liberty, the moral liberty of man. This 
was necessary, as it came to abolish ancient creeds which 
were protected by the established powers. In this 
struggle, not only did growing Christianity never attack 
or question the existing authorities, but it formally 
acknowledged their rights, and while respecting them 
herself ordered others to respect them also. But at 
the same time, as regards the relations of men towards 
God, she appealed to the free consciences of men, 
and affirmed in principle the same liberty which she 
practised. " We must obey God rather than man," said 
St. Peter. " Try the spirits whether they be of God," 
said St. John. "I speak as to wise men, judge ye 
what I say," said St. Paul. 

At the creation God prescribed obedience to men 
under penalty of death ; in the day of regeneration God 
set man's liberty in motion to begin the work of salva- 
tion. 

There is no partiality with God, no void in his designs ; 
when he acts upon man he takes human nature as a 



14 



PREFACE. 



whole; our inclinations, our wants, our interests, our 
various rights are all before his eyes. He at the same 
time provides for and satisfies all; authority as well as 
liberty, liberty as well as authority. It is a dangerous 
mistake to misapprehend this complete and harmonious 
character of the divine work, and to mutilate it by seek- 
ing weapons in it for our human dissensions. Christ 
came to save mankind, not to give a party triumph. 
Christianity began by invoking liberty and giving her 
action. She then overcame, and set forth her authority. 
She then accommodated herself to the various forms and 
degrees of authority and liberty which the course of 
events brought out here and there in the world. Asso- 
ciated with the destinies and deeds of the human race, 
Christianity has suffered for our mistakes and faults, and 
has been often altered and compromised by the wayward- 
ness of human liberty and authority. But by her origin 
and essence she is beyond the reach of their struggles, 
inexhaustible in her virtue to heal contradictory evils, 
and always ready to afford help on the side where danger 
threatens or redress is needed. 

In the actual state of society and disposition, it is 
authority, and with authority order, which are in dan- 
ger : Christianity owes them all her support. I know of 
no greater falsehood or more gross perversion than that 
of the men who in this day strive to turn the Christian 
religion to the promotion of that brutal and foolish 
anarchy which they denominate social democracy. The 
gospel and history are equally repugnant to this absurd 



PREFACE. 



15 



profanation. The cause of civil authority and of the 
Christian religion is clearly common. Divine order and 
human order, the State and the Church, have common 
dangers and common enemies. May God grant them com- 
mon wisdom ; for while at the same time each separately 
and both in concert must re-establish authority in her 
position and rights, they must also solve another and 
newer problem, and satisfy other and pressing wants. 

I have nothing to say to those men who think that 
for many ages society in Europe, and especially in 
France, governments as well as the minds of men, have 
pursued a totally wrong road, and that there is nothing 
in the prevailing character and tendency of our actual 
civilisation but error, corruption and decay. I under- 
stand that, thinking thus, they deem retrograde reaction 
necessary as well as legitimate, and venture upon it 
accordingly. As regards such, I can but express my 
profound conviction; that they will have no success. 
Even were they right, they would have no success. If 
they were right, modern society would be condemned to 
perish ; we should make progress in decay ; but we should 
not return to what is past. But they are not right. No 
one is more convinced than I am of the immense mis- 
takes and fatal errors of our day. No one more fears 
and abhors the influence which the revolutionary spirit 
exercises among us, and the danger with which that 
threatens us; a human Satan, at once sceptical and 
fanatical, anarchical and tyrannical, eager to deny and to 
destroy, incapable alike of creating aught that can live 



16 



PREFACE. 



or of allowing aught to be created and exist under its 
eye. I am one of those who think it absolutely neces- 
sary to overcome this fatal spirit, and to replace in honor 
and power the spirit of order and faith, which is the spirit 
of life and safety. But I do not believe that this revolu- 
tionary spirit preponderates in modern minds. I do not 
believe that our civilization has been for ages mere mis- 
take and corruption. I do not believe in the irremediable 
evil, or inevitable decay of my time and of my country. 

The characteristic, the most important part of modern 
civilisation is the prodigious increase of the ambition and 
power of man. Eecal what has taken place in past ages 
and that which now goes on, the long series and vast 
mass of human toil and success of all kinds in all places, 
the many secrets laid bare by science, the many monu- 
ments raised by genius, the riches created by industry, 
the progress of justice, the ease introduced into the con- 
dition of the lowly as well as the great, the weak as well 
as the strong ; man marching as a master over the whole 
space of the earth which he inhabits, and guaging with 
an accurate eye the worlds which he cannot reach ; the 
mind spreading her discoveries and ideas through every 
recess of human society ; matter in its every form sub- 
jected and made subservient to man's use; this expansive 
and ascendant ardour which circulates in the whole social 
body ; this activity universal, incessant, and unceasingly 
fruitful, which puts every thing in motion, and works for 
the general good. Never has man advanced so rapidly 
to the conquest and dominion of the world ; never in 



PREFACE. 



17 



his capacity and with the powers of man has he ex- 
ercised such a rule over nature and society. 

I know how much there is here of evil and danger, 
of intoxication and miscalculation; these, however, are 
not the symptoms of decline, they are those of greatness 
and futurity. 

It is with this great fact, this enormous increase of 
the power and ambition of humanity, that Church and 
State, Christian and civil government have to deal 
henceforth. When, with the help of God and outward 
circumstances, they shall have brought man back to 
respect those eternal laws which he has so foolishly 
misconstrued ; when they shall have again placed bounds 
to his power, and subdued the vanity of his pride, man 
will still remain powerful and haughty, conscious of his 
strength and full of desire for the rights which have ex- 
cited his ambition. Where there is strength, by natural 
harmony and in a certain measure, power and liberty 
follow. What hereafter will be that measure? What 
share of influence will man, each individual man, exercise 
on his own and the public destiny ? That is the 
problem ; it may be solved, it cannot be eluded. The 
spirit of liberty has entered society in the train of the 
labours and progress of humanity ; it may be kept in 
its proper sphere, it cannot be expelled. 

Everywhere civil governments are aware of this, and 
act accordingly. I see the deepest injustice prevailing 
towards the governments of our day. It is false that 
they are indifferent to the welfare and progress of 

C 



18 



PREFACE. 



nations. It is false that they only look to stability and 
tyranny. They may doubtless feel personal passions, 
old errors; but whatever their form, they are all, from 
motives of prudence or duty, seriously impressed with 
the necessity of respecting the rights and ameliora- 
ting the condition of men. And those most opposed 
to liberal appearances make every day, in their laws and 
practice, a multitude of changes favourable to justice and 
liberty. 

I say, too, that European governments, amidst the 
storms of the last sixty years, have conducted themselves, 
taking all into account, with great moderation. Their 
dignity incessantly insulted, their existence attacked, 
they have not given way, either during the struggle 
or after the victory, to those excesses of passion or power 
with which the history of the world has been solongfilled. 
They may be shewn to have been neither foreseeing nor 
able in their methods, whether of resistance or conces- 
sion to the new-born spirit; but it is unjust to set them 
down as its intractable adversaries. In the formidable 
strife of our day between governments and revolutions, 
history will surely not impute to the former the most 
insolent contempt of justice and liberty. And if the 
spirit of revolution were as moderate in its pretensions 
and acts, as governments have shown themselves disposed 
to be towards the spirit of progress, the great problem of 
the conciliation of order and liberty, in civil society, 
would be near its solution. 

The government of religious society, or to speak with 



PREFACE. 



19 



greater accuracy and freedom, the Catholic Church, has 
an analogous problem to solve; the more important 
because if the state of the minds of men is closely 
watched, it is seen that it is in the religious order that 
the idea of liberty is strongest and most deeply rooted. 
The right of conscience before God appears and is, in 
fact, very superior to that of conscience before men. 
If there be, in the life of the soul, one portion in 
which the intervention of force is more than elsewhere 
unrighteous and odious, it is clearly when the relation 
of the soul with her Creator and Judge is in question, 
and when the question for her is of eternity and 
salvation. Here, moreover, is a feeling which we have 
all experienced, a principle to which we have all paid 
homage. Christians or philosophers, Catholics or Pro- 
testants, we have all had and still have, even amidst 
the most civilized nations, need to invoke in our turn 
religious liberty, as that which, of all the cries for 
liberty, most surely arouses in the heart the idea of a 
sacred right and necessity, that which excites the most 
lively susceptibility and most general sympathy. 

I feel a profound respect for the Catholic Church. 
She has been during centuries the Christian Church of all 
Europe. She is the great Christian Church of France. I 
look upon her dignity, her liberty, her moral authority, 
as essential to the fate of entire Christianity; and did 
I believe that the Catholic church could not, without 
self-abjuration, accept in the State the principle of 

C 2 



20 



PREFACE. 



religious liberty, I should be silent ; for above all things 
I detest hypocrisy and subtlety. But it is not so. 

Let the Catholic Church maintain fully her funda- 
mental principles, her permanent inspiration, her doctri- 
nal infallibility, her unity. Let her by her laws and 
internal discipline interdict to her faithful followers all 
that may tend to the injury of these; it is her right as 
well as her faith. But let her at the same time fully 
admit, not of the separation of the Church and State, that 
clumsy expedient which lowers and weakens both under 
the pretext of freeing both, but of the separation of spiri- 
tual and temporal order, of the civil and religious state, and 
acknowledge the illegality of all forcible interference in 
spiiitual order, albeit in the cause of truth. Let her thus 
accept religious liberty as a law, not of religious society, 
but of policy, as a right not of the christian, but of the 
citizen. At once will the pretended incompatibility be- 
tween modern society and the Catholic Church disappear. 
The problem of peace between civil and religious society 
will be solved. 

The Catholic Church can pursue this course ; for all 
that religiously constitutes it, all her spiritual order thus 
remains intact and independent : and if she so pursues 
it ; if, while she firmly upholds her principles and 
rights as a religious society, she accepts loyally the princi- 
ples of our political order and the religious liberty which 
forms a part of it ; not only will she lay the foundation 
of peace between herself and civil society, but she will 
assure to herself great strength and a great future. 



PREFACE. 



21 



Christianity has many conquests to make and to repeat. 
For the re-establishment of social order and the moral 
welfare of the soul, she must regain much ground. Nor 
is it known how rapidly obstacles and resistance would 
disappear before her, if the dread of her old intolerance 
were dispelled, and respect for religious liberty on the 
part of the Catholic Church herself considered as assured. 

I would go still further, and submit to Christians 
another consideration. 

There is amongst Christians of whatever church a 
common faith. They believe in a divine revelation 
contained in the gospels, and in Jesus Christ who came 
upon earth to save the world. 

For Christians of whatever church there is now a 
common cause. They have to maintain Christian faith 
and law against impiety and anarchy. 

This faith and this necessity, common to all Christians, 
are of infinitely greater moment than all the differences 
which separate them. 

Do I say that they ought at all hazards to set aside 
those differences, and in the name of their common 
faith and common danger undergo fusion, — to use an 
expression of the day, — and form hereafter but one and 
the same church? 

I do not dream of it. The re-establishment of unity 
in the bosom of Christianity by the re-union of all 
Christian churches, has been the desire and the endeavour 
of the greatest minds, both Catholic and Protestant. 
Bossuet and Leibnitz have attempted it. Even now the 



22 



PREFACE. 



idea is present to many noble spirits, and pious bishops 
have so expressed it to me, with a confidence by which 
I feel profoundly honoured. I respect the sympathetic 
wish, but I do not believe that it can be realised. 
Between temporal order and human interests, fusion, 
difficult as it may be, is always possible ; for interests 
may be made to agree through the force and in the 
name of necessity. In spiritual order and between 
religious beliefs, no such agreement is possible, for ne- 
cessity can never become truth. Faith does not admit of 
fusion; she insists on unity. 

But where the unity of the church does not exist, 
when the fusion of different churches is impossible, and 
when religious liberty is established, there is room for 
practical good sense and Christian charity. Good 
sense tells Christians that they are all in front of the 
same enemy, much more dangerous to them than 
they can be to each other; for should he triumph, 
the blow will fall on each. Amongst the upper 
classes, the war against religion manifests itself only 
under the forms of reserved scepticism or rationalism ; 
timid, often serious and polite, rather seeking to screen 
than display itself. But at the bottom of society, and 
amidst the masses, it is passionate impiety which is at 
work, and for the sake of victory becomes subservient 
to the most gross and furious interests. The Christian 
faith, in its essential and vital character, that is, faith 
and submission to siipernatural Christian order, is alone 
capable of sustaining the contest. Let Christians, 



PREFACE. 



23 



whether Catholic or Protestant, be convinced of it, the 
loss of credit and authority on either side would redound 
to the advantage not of Protestantism or Catholicism, 
but of impiety. It is then for all Christians, whatever 
their differences in their Christian sphere, an obvious 
interest and imperative duty to accept and maintain 
each other as natural allies against anti-christian impiety. 
It will require all their strength, all their united efforts, 
to triumph finally in this warfare, and save at once 
Christianity and society. 

What interest dictates to Christians, Christian charity 
commands. I use without hesitation plain words to ex- 
press the ideas and sentiments which I feel, and even 
amidst the coldness of heart which is one of the most 
melancholy evils of my day, I feel no embarrassment in 
speaking to Christians of Christian charity. 

When religious struggles are the ruling passion and 
great practical business of an epoch, — when different 
creeds are arrayed, wielding temporal as well as spiritual 
arms, with the mutual hope of subjecting if not of ex- 
tirpating, — I feel that Christian charity is difficult to 
exercise. The temptations are too strong, the interests 
too pressing to be surmounted. The Chancellor De 
L'Hopital and the President De Thou, though recommend- 
ing peace to Catholics and Protestants, would hardly have 
dreamt, on the eve or the morrow of a massacre or a 
battle, of speaking to them of charity. 

But when material strife has ceased, when religious 
liberty is established in manners as well as in the 



24 



PREFACE. 



laws, when in fact and truth the different religious creeds 
are obliged to live peaceably one with another, why- 
should not the desire arise of adorning and furthering 
peace by the exercise of charity? When the coarser 
passions are powerless, why should not the more mild 
and equitable feelings develope themselves? I know 
the force of traditions, of recollections, as well as the 
permanent differences which tend to support contro- 
versy, even when purely speculative. Nevertheless, 
prolonged peace and freedom have much influence in 
calming the soul. At this day we have before us a 
signal instance, and I do not hesitate to repeat that to 
which I gave utterance in the Bible Society: — "See 
what is passing in England ; there, doubtless, the irrita- 
tion of the Protestants is great, there is a general and 
passionate movement in favour of a popular and power- 
ful faith. The government itself associates with and 
follows this movement. English Protestantism shows 
itself strongly inclined to seek security and satisfaction 
at the expense of the religious liberty of the Catholics. 
Well ! although matters wear this appearance, nothing 
is really done ; they dare not ; they cannot ; and in the 
bottom of their hearts they desire not to do so. Amidst 
this Protestant excitement, the religious liberty of English 
Catholics still remains and extends. They have liberty 
of worship ; their churches are open, nay, increasing in 
number ; their priests perform their duties without in- 
terruption : they possess the liberty of the press ; they 
publicly defend their creed and their conduct, and have 



PREFACE. 



25 



freedom of speech and power of voting in parliament, 
where they strenuously uphold their cause." A noble 
sight, which, after having justly filled the friends of 
religious liberty with uneasiness, ought now to give them 
every satisfaction. The spirit of persecution had re- 
appeared, that of justice and liberty met it face to face, 
and in spite of appearances remained master of the field. 
May Christians, Catholic and Protestant, at last ac- 
knowledge it ; it will be hereafter more natural than they 
imagine, to live in the exercise of Christian charity, for 
they have lost the habit, almost the power of efficacious 
oppression. 

A few words more, and I have done. Under a well 
grounded and well understood system of religious 
freedom, not only can different religious sects live peace- 
fully and harmoniously together, but can contribute, by 
their pacific co-existence, to their mutual religious 
prosperity. What has been for Catholicism in France one 
of the most glorious and pious periods? Surely, the 
seventeenth century. French Catholicism then flourished 
in the presence of Protestantism, which was still tole- 
rated, and Jansenism, then in full vigour. What has pre- 
vented the Anglican church from falling into that apathy 
which has appeared more than once ready to overcome 
her ? What but the neighbourhood of opposing and 
half free sects, who have always kept her in play, and 
forced her to overcome her langour? There is no 
establishment, no power, that is not benefited by a sense 
of control, and by the necessity of making an effort to 



26 



PREFACE. 



maintain its position. It is good to overcome, not 
to exterminate an enemy ; and in spiritual as in temporal 
orders, the reign of liberty bestows on all their just 
rewards. While it preserves their rights to the weak, it 
incessantly regenerates the victorious. 

Doubtless, Catholicism leans on the principle of 
authority ; but without detaching itself from this base, it 
can admit, and in the course of its career has often 
admitted, very different degrees of liberty. From the 
eleventh to the fourteenth century, while the Catholic 
church was for civil society a great school of authority, 
she was in her own bosom a great theatre of freedom. 
For in her councils, her congregations, her corres- 
pondence with the faithful, discussion between her 
chiefs was ever open and animated. It is not for me to 
ask whether our times advise or warrant a return to 
such methods of government ; and I am rather disposed 
to hesitate than undertake the task. But one great 
fact strikes me ; one which deserves, if I mistake not, 
the entire attention of the Catholic clergy : it is that the 
disposition of the mind and heart of the faithful who are 
under their charge is not always the same, and neither 
the same measure nor the same quality of religious 
nutriment is requisite at all times, if I may so speak, 
for Christian souls. After the fall of the Soman empire, 
when the mission of the Catholic clergy was to convert 
the barbarians, and to cause a little moral light to 
penetrate amongst the rude conquerors, and the miser- 
able population who lived under their yoke, it was 



PREFACE. 



27 



above all by the firm and striking exercise of religious 
authority that the priests were enabled to attain their 
end. They found amongst the Christian population, 
high and low, many passions to repress, and but few 
intellectual wants to satisfy. There was greater need to 
strike and to govern the imagination than to nourish 
and direct mental activity. Time and individuals are 
now different. Minds are now active, varied, curious, 
eager. The spiritual life of faithful Christians, of the 
most faithful as well as the most wavering, is infinitely 
more animated than it was formerly. Souls so disposed 
require a moral rule proportionably animated ; one which, 
while it guides, may give to their innate activity 
a greater share of satisfaction. I am expressing a pro- 
found conviction, — one, I will venture to say, free from 
any reservation or ill-will, — when I say that henceforth 
the Catholic church, without any sacrifice of authority, 
will be obliged, for the government of the soul, to admit 
of more intellectual and spontaneous movement on 
the part of the faithful than was required in other 
times. Yet I am convinced that when once the 
Catholic church shall herself have acknowledged this 
new moral state of Christian society, she will also know 
how to provide for it. 

In a recent publication,* a justly eminent stranger, 
M. Donoso Cortes, speaking of me in terms which I 
cannot allow myself to repeat, said, " The great mistake 

* Essai sur le Catholicisme, le Liberalisme, et le Socialisme, par M. Donoso 
Cortes, Marquis de Yaldegamas, p. 99-105. 



28 



PREFACE. 



into which M. Guizot has fallen, in his 1 History of 
European Civilization,' is the having attempted the im- 
possible task of explaining visible things by visible 
things, natural things by natural things ; which is as super- 
fluous as to explain a fact by itself, a thing by the thing 
itself; because all visible and natural things, considered 
as visible and natural, are one and the same thing." M ? 
Donoso Cortes will be convinced, I hope, that such is 
not my idea; and that, far froni resting satisfied with 
visible and natural things, I believe in supernatural 
order, and in its necessity to explain and govern the 
world. Philosophers, I think, will on their side ac- 
knowledge that if I reject their doctrine, I do not 
abandon their right. I do not say this with the view 
of seeking; the frivolous honour of maintaining at the 
same time two great causes, but to affirm a double 
truth to which I yield my entire conviction and devo- 
tion, Christian faith and religious freedom. The welfare 
of all nations demands these as its price. 

GUIZOT. 

Val Richer, September, 1851. 



ESSAY I. 



ON THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS. 



[ 31 ] 



ON THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS. 
{October, 1838.) 

The sublimity of the gospel consists in two sentiments, 
which manifest themselves in it simultaneously, — hatred 
of evil, and tenderness for man who does evil ; horror of 
sin, to speak as the gospel speaks, and love of the 
sinner. 

How profound a depth of judgment as well as of moral 
justice ! How admirable a knowledge of things as well 
as of men ! For evil is truly hateful both in itself and 
in its effects ; and men, the best of men, are surcharged 
with evil. Yet, at the same time, man is infinitely 
capable of good, infinitely worthy of affection; and 
with all his imperfections, a being to be loved beyond 
expression. 

How great, too, the knowledge displayed of the true 
conditions of moral authority ! It is not acquaintance 
with the nature of man, but power over him, that the 
Gospel seeks. Yet to influence men morally, it is need- 
ful both to love and reform them ; to win their confi- 
dence by love and their respect by severity. Severity 



32 



ON" THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS. 



and love are the two engines wherewith to control the 
heart of man, for men know by instinct their moral 
wants, — those which press them down as well as those 
which please them. They are deeply troubled by the 
sense of their imperfections; they wish to be raised. 
Love felt and inspired is at once their noblest and their 
most lively joy; they desire to love and be beloved. 
Complete control over them, I mean moral control, 
involves these two conditions, — that much be required 
from them of virtue, much be bestowed on them of love. 

The last century had thus much good; it loved 
mankind and men. It bore a really deep affection to 
them, and wished them well. But as it was a critical and 
reasoning age, the sentiment of love often disguised 
itself in the dress and shape of controversy and analysis. 
Nevertheless, the feeling was there, sincere and powerful. 
That spirit of universal justice and humanity which 
characterized the epoch, whence did it spring if 
not from a lively sympathy with man, and a tender 
interest in his welfare ? 

But, together with this virtue, the last century certainly 
exhibited one great defect ; it did not feel for evil the 
aversion it deserves. Not only as regarded certain 
rules of conduct and certain duties, but as concerned a 
rule in general and the very principle of duty, the 
spirits of the day were victims to doubt, that great 
corrupter of the human heart. In the moral system, 
stability and elevation go together ; to waver is to 
descend; uncertainty is the sign and the cause of 



ON THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS. 



abasement. Not knowing where the evil existed, or 
even if it did exist, the eighteenth century denied or 
excused it when met with, instead of execrating and 
opposing it to the utmost. 

And with the fixed points the long perspectives 
disappeared. By an admirable law of his nature, in 
order that man may hope he must believe, and believe 
in good. Virtue alone demands an eternity. Doubting 
about duty, they doubted their own future. Moral 
faith tottered; God veiled his countenance. 

In such a state of mind, in an age which loved man 
and interested itself about him, man must have been 
an object of pity. What a destiny was that of a 
creature thus powerful yet faltering ; always in motion, 
yet not knowing where to fix his foot firmly in this 
world, or where to fix his gaze beyond it ! To aspire 
so high, in order to fall low and pass away so quickly ! 
Such ambition without a worthy object ! Such labour 
without any sure results ! What father, if he thought 
his child were reserved for such a lot, but would feel 
overwhelmed by compassion and grief ? 

But no ! at the same time that the last century loved 
men it admired them ; and I can understand this. God 
and duty being abandoned, what remains of great 
and good if it be not man? Imperfect as is human 
nature, a mixture of good and evil, good is found 
there; the power of good makes itself felt. All that 
it possesses of what is elevated, rich, tender, or attrac- 
tive, does not necessarily vanish because the mind 

D 



34 



ON THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS. 



misunderstands its source and government. And if it 
should happen, as it then did, that these great mental 
errors should occur in the midst of a period of great 
intellectual developement, of a great outflowing of 
sympathetic and noble sentiments, of a great march in 
the condition of mankind ; if, at the moment when man 
rises highest and shines with most brilliancy, he loses 
sight of his compass, his God, how can he do otherwise 
than admire himself ? how avoid a feeling of pride ? 
He has no longer faith or hope on high, yet he advances, 
prospers, becomes rich, triumphs. He must believe; he 
must hope in himself; he must worship himself. Does 
religion fall ? Then idolatry must arise, the idolatry of 
man for man. Man was the god of the eighteenth 
century, the object of worship as well as of love. 
Thence a great and deplorable leaning to human nature, 
to its weaknesses and inclinations. It was loved, but 
with a blind and weak love, which could only approve, 
caress, and promise, having nothing to advise, nothing 
to require. 

Thence an immoderate thirst, in the name of and 
for man, of immediate worldly and palpable happi- 
ness. Loving man truly, and having nothing to offer 
him in this world superior to this world's happiness, 
nothing better or eternal beyond, it was necessary that 
men should be happy, that all should be happy here 
below; as here below their destiny and their treasure 
were contained. To accept the imperfect condition of 
humanity may be the part of selfishness which cares for 



ON THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS. 



35 



nothing, and of faith which hopes for everything ; but he 
who loves men, and yet can only dispose in their favour 
the blessings of this life and this world, cannot resign him- 
self to a lot for the most part so rude, to progress so slow 
and always so incomplete. He is compelled to find 
much more to bestow on men, to distribute something, 
and at once, to all. And as spirits imbued with so noble 
a longing do not dream of the impossibility of satisfying 
it, they are compelled to assign to the sufferings and 
hardships of the human state an accidental and factitious 
cause, one which human wisdom and power can over- 
come. Hence the other maxim of the last century, that, 
left to themselves and their natural equilibrium, men 
and things go on well ; that evil proceeds not from our 
innate nature and state, but merely from the ill regulated 
state of society, where the few have substituted their 
will and interest for the wills and interests of the many ; 
that it is society and not men that need reformation, as 
the latter would not need it had not society corrupted 
him. 

A. maxim which has given rise, and naturally, 
to the sorest and most plausible of modern griev- 
ances, that incurable impatience of whatever is, that 
boundless disquiet, that insatiable thirst for change in 
the pursuit of a social condition which shall give at 
last to man, to every man, all the happiness to which 
he aspires. 

This is the state in which the eighteenth century has 
placed mens souls. And I here speak of upright, honest, 

' D 2 



36 ON THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS. 

and sincere minds, not carried away by selfishness, not 
domineered over by evil passions, which think of others, 
and only wish for themselves as well as for those others 
what they consider legitimate. 

The great mistakes and ills of any epoch are those of 
the good. These must be looked to and provided against, 
for there lies the hidden danger. Who can struggle 
against ill if the good are themselves infected with it ? 

I have seen the last of the master spirits of the 
eighteenth century — those who had remained faithful 
to it. I have seen them emerging from our revolution 
after their fearful experience of it. The condition of 
their minds was a touching and instructive spectacle. 
They were sorrowful, but not discouraged; full of 
esteem and affection for mankind; full of confidence 
and hope despite so many mistakes and reverses. 
The same fertility of wit, the same generosity of 
heart, the same spirit of justice and progress animated 
them. They accounted for their momentary failure by 
the violence of passion, the force of old habits, the want 
of public intelligence, the too hasty application of good 
principles carried to too great a length. And while 
their explanation bore witness to their sincerity and 
perseverance, still there was visible and perceptible in 
them at every step a persistance in the same mistakes ; 
the same absence of moral dogma and religious faith ; 
the same idolatry of man, the same tenderness towards 
him, the same pretensions for him. They had lost 
nothing of their noble ambition or tender sympathy for 



ON THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS. 



87 



human nature, but they had learned nothing of its inward 
laws nor of the true methods for its government. 

Thus a secret feeling of disquiet was apparent through 
the constancy of their ideas and of their hope; and 
they remained melancholy after their explanation, as if 
hardly satisfied with it themselves. 

We are far in advance of our fathers. " I was carried 
here by a cannon shot," said Danton to M. de Talleyrand, 
who saw him at the Ministere de la Justice. The same 
shot has carried us all a hundred leagues from our 
cradle. We have learnt much. We have seen novel 
appearances under a new light. The intelligence and 
power of man; his reason, his morality, his power of 
action, and resistance to direction and restraint in the 
affairs of the world; all has been put to the proof, 
gauged, and measured. We know how deeply seated 
and closely hidden is the evil in our nature, yet how 
readily and terribly it occasionally breaks out. We 
know the bounds both of our spirit and of our will. We 
have been powerful, immensely powerful; and yet we 
have been unable to accomplish our will because it was 
in opposition to the laws of eternal wisdom, and our 
power was shivered against them like glass. At this 
price, we have acquired a more accurate and profound 
knowledge of ourselves and our condition. We no 
longer put ourselves off with desires or arguments, 
appearances or hopes. We see that which is. We live 
more than our fathers did in the truth. We are wiser 
and more modest. 



38 



ON THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS, 



But our wisdom has one grave defect. It is still, if I 
may so speak, but an outward good, which influences our 
life and conduct, but has not yet penetrated our soul and 
become for us a moral property, a moral wealth. It 
redounds to the honour and greatness of man that he is 
not content with what is, merely because it is. The 
mere fact does not suffice ; he wishes to see more. For 
the fact he would discover an end, a reason. He wishes 
to attach it to the laws of his own inward nature, his 
own destiny ; to feel it in relation to and harmony with 
his soul. Then only in man's eyes does a fact assume a 
moral aspect and acquire a moral power ; then only does 
man accept it and obey it with respect as truth, instead 
of yielding and submitting to it with pain as a necessity. 
Moreover, we do not yet understand all the lessons of 
experience which we have received and recognized. 
They have not yet assumed in our moral being the rank 
which belongs to them. They are for us unimpeachable 
facts rather than great and good laws; and mistakes 
rather than progress. They direct more than they have 
enlightened us, and if we conform our actions and 
thoughts to them, it is because we are subdued rather 
than convinced. 

Were it not so, why this dejection, this secret disgust, 
this indifference, this bluntness, this chill which now 
so often accompany wisdom and sound sense? You 
say you are discouraged, you do not hope, you do not 
dare any more to attempt aught that is difficult and great. 
What then has happened ? What has this experience, at 



ON THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS. 



89 



the same time so much vaunted and so mournful, taught 
you? That duty, not interest or passion, is the principle 
of morality ; that God has not ceased to watch over the 
world ; that he resists the proud and punishes the guilty ; 
that order has her natural and inviolable laws, and avenges 
herself on those who mistake them; that evil, always 
present, always at our door, in us and about us, needs 
to be incessantly resisted. Of what do you complain ? 
These are advances, not mistakes ; truths reconquered, 
power recovered, not hopes thrown away. It is true, 
man was carried away by an ambition beyond his 
strength and right ; it must be brought down, his reason 
and his will must agree to restore what they attempted 
to usurp. Instead of setting up and adoring himself as a 
monarch, man here must acknowledge his primitive im- 
perfection, his definite insufficiency, and yield submis- 
sion in thought and life on the bosom of liberty. But is 
it nothing that this liberty is now more firmly estab- 
lished than man has ever known it ? Is the general 
progress of justice and happiness in the world nothing? 
Is there not therein a fitting reward for the toils and 
sufferings of our age ? Is there not, after so many mis- 
takes, enough to satisfy the most exacting, to refresh 
the most exhausted ? 

Let us look higher. In return for the sacrifices 
required from our pride, in compensation for the 
demonstrated weakness of our nature and the marked 
bounds of our power, has nothing been given to us? 
Do we not regain more than we lose ? Do we not ascend 



40 



ON THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS. 



more than we have been forced to descend? The 
eighteenth century had inflated us with pride, yet had in 
reality only lowered us. In making us monarchs of this 
world, it had at the same time confined and reduced us 
to it alone. No more immensity, no more eternity 
for the soul ; no longer a bond of kindred between God 
and man. We came and passed over the earth like all that 
springs from and returns to it. Our noblest ambition, 
our purest desires, our most sublime flights, all that there 
is in us of noble and truly divine, was no more 
than a delusion and a burden. Not only in respect of 
our worldly goods and joys, but of ourselves and for 
ever, we had to exclaim, " vanity of vanities, all is 
vanity." We have escaped; we are leaving this con- 
fined and low condition; we are rising; we are again 
about to attain our dignity, our hope, our futurity, our 
soul. We can no more parade ourselves in our pride, 
but we are no longer plunged into and abandoned 
in misery ; we find again a Master here below, and also 
" our Father which is in heaven." 

I know how much there is of the frivolous and super- 
ficial in the return of our time to religious hopes and 
beliefs. I know how much even serious minds are 
doubtful and agitated upon this subject, the evils that 
are still at work, the problems that await solution, 
and that perhaps a tardy one. Nevertheless, we have 
got back to the right track. Man does not increase his 
distance from God; he has turned towards the East; 
he seeks the light. Here we still yield rather to the 



ON THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS. 



41 



force of facts than of ideas ; and experience is credited 
rather than conviction. Still we believe in experience 
rather than in our own talent, and submit to facts though 
we hardly render a free and enlightened homage to the 
truths of which they witness. 

It is not yet adoration, but it is the fear of God, that 
beginning of wisdom. 

Had we already reached the point of adoration — were 
the wisdom for which we have so dearly paid really 
established amongst us, in the affairs of this world and in 
those of eternity, in questions political, moral, and reli- 
gious, in short, in everything ; and were we fully satisfied 
as to the rational lawfulness and practical utility of her 
counsels, if she enlightened our understandings as she rules 
our conduct — we should be far other than we are ; more 
tranquil, more confiding, more firm, more worthy, more 
exalted. We should distinguish further; we should 
advance higher and faster in the paths of new and 
amending progress, in which we now walk slowly and 
with bended head, as if constrained and humbled. 

But, I repeat, it is needful, for this salutary trans- 
formation of our ideas to be accomplished, that our 
experience may become our reason. We have more 
good sense than enlightenment ; we act better than we 
think. Inwardly and deeply we are imbued with 
prejudices which fetter although they do not rule us; 
we are still doubtful about the very truths by which we 
test our deeds; only doubt has changed its form and 
language. With our fathers it was infatuated and bold ; 



42 



ON THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS. 



with us it is detracting and useless. Pride has turned it 
into contempt; and because we do not experience for 
human nature the unbounded ambition and chimerical 
hopes which formerly prevailed, we no longer love men 
tenderly, nor think well of their nature, nor take an 
interest in their destiny. We imagine that wisdom 
binds us to indifference and immobility. 

Many, too, of the ills of the eighteenth century, 
which sprung from the maxims then prevalent, and 
which, to all appearance, ought to have expired with 
them, still exist. We no longer have the same tender- 
ness for man, nor do we show greater aversion to evil. 
Indifference has not made us more strict. For though 
human nature is no longer judged with the same blind 
partiality, we are still full of indulgence towards it, and 
cowardly in our treatment of it ; we exhibit towards it the 
same complaisance, without feeling the former esteem 
and love. Materialist and impious doctrines are on the 
decline, but we are more than ever tormented by an 
eager thirst for immediate material happiness. 

Is it true then, as is said, that we are in a state of 
moral decay? Is our age destined to continue the 
evil of its precursor, and while losing its virtues add 
to it its own evils ? 

I confidently answer in the negative. Nothing would 
tempt me to flatter the age I live in, but I love it. 
I am struck by its evil ; I think a remedy urgently called 
for, an immediate struggle necessary; I also see in it 



ON THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS. 



43 



much good, a good deep and fruitful and sufficient with 
the help of God to resist and conquer the evil. 

I said just now that the great mistakes, the serious 
maladies of any period are those of the good. On the 
other side, it is in the sound ideas and good dispositions 
of the same class that the moral force of an epoch and its 
means of safety are to be found. Now the general and 
ruling disposition of the good at the present day is the 
spirit of order, the deep desire for order after so much 
trouble and contest. 

This is said to be merely the result of prudence, of a 
clear idea of interest, not of morality. 

In my opinion this is an inconsiderate sentence ; one 
which shows little knowledge of man and of what passes 
within him, of which he is often himself unconscious. 
There is morality, true morality, in the spirit of order, 
especially when largely developed and hardly tried. The 
word interest is pronounced disdainfully, as if it implied 
pure selfishness, and excluded virtue. Thanks be to God, 
who has created legitimate interests. Interests inherent 
to legitimate situations and relations are essentially moral 
and animated by moral impulsion. The father of a 
family who protects his household, the labourer who 
takes care of the fruit of his industry, act for their own 
interest it is true, and according to the dictates of pru- 
dence. But around and connected with this interest are 
grouped the most praiseworthy feelings, domestic affec- 
tions/respect of the law, care for the future, defence of 
right, fulfilment of duty, efforts, devotion, sacrifice. 



44 



ON THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS. 



Who will refuse to these the name of morality ? Public 
instinct answers this question. " There are but two 
parties," said a man of simple mind, and a stranger to 
all sophism, " that of honest men and that of rogues." 
When it was desired to define and rally under one 
banner the party of order in France, it was inscribed 
" The Charter and Property."* 

In fact, at the present day the ideas of honesty, dignity, 
morality, and virtue are closely allied with that of order. 
Public morality is in the general mind the cause of 
order as well as of individual security. It is because, 
after so many convulsions as corrupt as painful, the taste 
for and love of order are amongst us the first effect, the 
first symptom of attachment to the maxims and practice 
of duty. 

Besides, democratic societies, still so novel and mys- 
terious, are little known and ill understood. Their vir- 
tues want the eclat, — I will go further, want the finish, 
the charm which belong to the elevation of persons, the 
beauty of form, the influence of time, the complete, 
varied and harmonious developement of great and glo- 
rious human nature. Yet they want neither virtue itself 
nor morality. There will be found in these crowded and 
unknown masses, in their laborious and modest lives, 
much uprightness, much simple justice, much active 
benevolence, much submission to law, much resignation 
to their lot, a rare power of effort and sacrifice, a noble 



La Charte et les gens de bien." 



ON THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS. 



45 



and touching disposition to forgetfulness of self, without 
pretension, without noise, without reward. 

Even the jealousy of all superiority, the passion of envy 
— that poison of democratic society, — does not always 
affect as much as might be apprehended their moral 
judgment. This venom has affected us deeply; never- 
theless, excellence is met with joy and welcomed with 
gratitude as a service done to society, which feels the 
necessity of being elevated and purified. Eespect is 
more genuine, taste more correct while it remains a 
stranger to systematic opinions, to mere flights of fancy, 
and to all romantic emphasis. By a singular and very 
significant phenomenon, the exaggeration and emphasis 
of the present period tend towards- evil and disorder. 
The declaimer plunges into the mire. Our times wish 
good to be true, simple, sedate, and sensible. It is only 
because it is good, a moral good, that it is esteemed and 
loved. It is asked to appear but what it is. 

Where such a disposition prevails ; where good is thus 
honored for itself, and for itself alone, there may still be 
much evil, and very serious evil ; but such can hardly be 
the lot of the future. 

We are hardly yet advancing towards a future. As 
yet we have struggled, and still strive to acquire from the 
heritage of the last century a spoil that suits us; a 
heritage so loaded, so mingled, that it has plunged us in 
confusion. We have co-existing in us good and bad, 
true and false, in direct opposition. We bear about in 



46 



ON THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS. 



ourselves the most contradictory ideas and sentiments. 
We are driven about and stagger under their varying in- 
fluence. Now we try to reject all absolutely, now to forget 
all and live from day to day without thought or design. 
Vain efforts ! The problem harasses every soul, agitates 
or wearies it, leaves it in doubt or inactivity. None 
can elude it. A solution is necessary in moral as well 
as in political order, for individuals as for the state. For 
this is not a purely political question, which can be settled 
wholly and completely by charter, law, or cabinet. It 
is a matter which comes home to each of us ; one for 
which each of us individually has to provide. We 
must keep, apart from the impulse which the eighteenth 
century has given to the world and the minds of men, 
that which agrees with the eternal order which that era 
often mistook for the world and the human mind. The 
new truths and laws which come to us from that date, 
as well as the immutable truths and laws which it over- 
looked, must live and reign together in our thoughts ; 
we must know for a certainty and unhesitatingly prac- 
tice what they demand from us. On this condition only 
shall we see the end of that mixture of agitation and 
depression, this doubting both of well and ill regulated 
minds, this barrenness of movement as of wisdom which 
are the peculiar evils of our era. Government and people 
reciprocally accuse each other of this evil, and charge 
on each other the task of applying a remedy. " Let 
Power be dignified, firm, active, fertile," says the one; 
" let it sustain and animate, rule and aid society; society 
will assist, evils will be remedied, good will be done ; but 



ON THE STATE OF MEN'S SOULS. 



47 



it is for Power to take the initiative and responsibility 
in all this." "How can I do it?" replies Power. " How 
undertake the responsibility ? It is in society itself — in 
the mind itself — that the evil exists. They are weak, 
tottering, inactive ; full of doubts and fears. Let people 
ascend in the social scale ; let them show self-control. I 
do not prevent them. No one can ask me to do more ; 
I can do no more " 

The defence of both weakness of mind and heart is 
bad. The regeneration of our time demands from all 
both duty and exertion. From power, because it is set on 
high, it sees and is seen ; it shows the light and holds 
the standard. If it lowers them, society falls into 
darkness and disorder. From society too, from every 
individual, for we are all infected by the evil which we 
call upon power to cure. Yet power of itself is not 
able to cure, individually and collectively, the evils 
for which we ask a remedy. Our active and intelligent 
co-operation is indispensible. And it is precisely in this 
coalition of public power and individual will that the 
value and honor of free governments consist. Hence 
they are morally and politically powerful, salutary for 
immortal souls as for temporal occasions. 

This good must be the work of all. Power or society, 
rulers or plain citizens, let us each look to our own 
share in the great work, and perform our own part of the 
general duty. To him who shall be able the best and 
speediest to fulfil his, will belong the glory as well 
as the power inherent to success. 



ESSAY II. 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



[ 51 ] 



ON 

KELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 

{February, 1838.) 

It is the fashion of the day loudly to lament over the 
condition of that great mass — the people. Their wants 
and sufferings are paraded. We are told of their lives 
so burdened and monotonous, so rude and precarious, 
so much fatigue, yet so little effect, so much danger and 
ennui, work so heavy, repose so slight, a future so un- 
certain. 

This is true. The condition of the masses in this 
world is neither easy, cheerful, nor certain. It is impos- 
sible to contemplate without deep commiseration so many 
human creatures carrying, from their cradle to their 
tomb, so grievous a burden, and withal scarcely able to 
meet their wants, the wants of their children, of their 
father, their mother; incessantly seeking some neces- 
sary of life for those most dear, yet not always find- 
ing it; having it perhaps to-day, uncertain of it to- 
morrow; and continually preoccupied about their material 
existence, scarcely able to give a thought to their moral 



52 ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



being. It is painful, most painful to witness, most pain- 
ful to reflect on. Yet is much reflection necessary. It 
were a grievous wrong and a grievous danger to forget it. 
More or less thought has been ever given to the subject. 
What said they who thought the most thereon ? 

They advised those who were the fortunate of this world 
to practise justice, goodness, charity; to apply them- 
selves to seeking out and relieving the unhappy. To the 
unfortunate they recommended good conduct, moderate 
desires, submission to authority, resignation, and hope. 
They explained the destiny of man, showed all it pos- 
sesses of sadness and sublimity, the compensations which 
are found in the different states, the pleasures which are 
common to all. They tried to cure, amongst the ills of 
men, those which men can cure ; and, with regard to 
those which are incurable here below, they strove to 
raise men's eyes to the remedies in God's hands. This 
was the language of religion. These were the words and 
advice she addressed to high and low, rich and poor, to 
children in her catechisms, to men in her sermons, from 
the pulpit and from the sanctuary, by the sick bed, to 
all, at all seasons, and by every means. 

The means of publicity and popular movement at that 
time belonged almost exclusively to religion. What the 
tribune, the press, the post — these trumpets of modern 
civilization — now are, the churches, the pulpit, religious 
instruction, pastoral superintendence formerly were 
Religion then addressed the masses. She never forgot 
the people. She was ever able to gain access there. 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



53 



And while she thus interested herself for them, and 
strove to lighten or partly bear the burden of life, 
she also sympathised with men of all classes and all 
conditions, and with the burdens all bear, the blows 
which reach all, the wounds which all receive as they 
tread their appointed path. 

To-day, while occupying ourselves much and justly 
with the material sufferings and fatigue which are shared 
by so many, we forget too much the moral fatigues and 
sufferings of which all partake ; the trials, the agonies 
of the soul, the mistakes, the ennui, the anguish, in short, 
the universal lot of man — which are the more poignant 
as the mind has more freedom and life more leisure. 

High or low, rich or poor, the elite or the multitude, 
let us pity each other, let us pity every one. We are 
all, as we advance in our career, " weary and heavy 
laden" ; we all deserve pity. 

We deserve it now more than ever. Never, it is true, 
has the condition of man been more equal or better. 
But the desires of men have far outrun their pro- 
gress. Never was ambition more impatient and wide- 
spread. Never were so many hearts a prey to the 
thirst for wealth and pleasure. Pleasures refined and 
grovelling, a thirst of material well-being and of intellec- 
tual variety, a spirit of activity and luxury, of adventure 
and idleness : everything appears possible, desirable, 
and accessible to all. It is not that passion is strong, or 
that man is disposed to take much trouble for the 
gratification of his desires. He wishes feebly, desires 



54 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



immoderately ; and the great scope of his desire throws 
him into a state of uneasiness, in which all that he 
already possesses appears but as the drop of water forgot- 
ten as soon as swallowed, and which irritates thirst instead 
of quenching it. The world has never seen such a con- 
flict of imperfect desires, fancies, pretensions, exactions ; 
never heard such a clamour of voices demanding together 
as their right all they have not and all that pleases them. 

And these voices are not raised to God. Ambition, 
is at once extended and debased. When the teachers 
of the people were religious preceptors, they tried to 
detach the popular thought from the things of earth, 
and by raising desires and hopes to heaven, to restrain and 
calm them here. They knew that here, do what they 
might, satisfaction was impossible. The popular teachers 
of this day think otherwise and speak another language. 
In the presence of the hard lot and burning ambition 
of man, at the very time that they are displaying 
their misery and fomenting their desires, they are tell- 
ing them that this earth contains what will satisfy them ; 
and that if each be not as happy as he would be, it 
is not in the nature of things nor of his own nature 
that he should complain, but of the vices of society, 
and the usurpations of a certain class of men. All are 
placed in this world to be happy ; all have the same 
right to happiness; the world can afford happiness to all. 

Words like these resound daily in the ears of all, knock 
at the portals of every heart, penetrate by every crevice 
into the most remote folds of society. 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



55 



And then we are astonished at the deep agitation and 
uneasiness under which nations and individuals, states and 
souls are labouring ! For myself, I wonder the uneasiness 
is not greater, the agitation more violent, the explosion 
more sudden. Such ideas and such words are enough 
to set humanity astray and rouse it to revolt. And the 
preserving care of Providence, the innate and spontaneous 
wisdom which men cannot absolutely shake off, must be 
powerful to prevent such language — unceasingly repeated 
and universally heard — from plunging the world again 
into chaos. 

No, it is not true that this earth possesses that which 
will suffice for the ambition and happiness of her 
inhabitants. It is not true that the untoward results or 
vices of human institutions are the sole or even the 
principal causes of the sad and painful lot of so many 
among men. Let these institutions become daily more 
just, more careful of the general welfare; it is the right 
of mankind. It is to the honour of our age that it 
adopted this thought and perseveres in trying to accom- 
plish it. Former times took too light a share in the 
sufferings of the multitude. Their pretensions were too 
humble as regards justice and happiness for all. Ours 
are more extended, more lofty; and we give, with good 
reason, to our advance in this path the noble name of 
civilization. God forbid that we should turn aside from 
the noble work, or be discouraged about such a noble 
hope. But we must not feed ourselves with pride and 
illusion, we must not promise to ourselves that which we 



56 



OX RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



cannot expect to attain of ourselves and by our ingenuity. 
There is a defect in our nature and an evil in our con- 
dition which eludes all human efforts. The disorder is 
within ourselves, and were every other source dried up, 
would arise from ourselves and our own will. An ine- 
quality of suffering is amongst the providential laws of 
our destiny. It is at once superiority and infirmity, 
greatness and misery. As free beings, we can create and 
do in fact without ceasing create evil. As immortal 
beings, neither the secrets of our lot nor the limits of our 
ambition are on this earth, and the life we lead here is 
but a very short scene of the unknown life which awaits 
us. Eegulate institutions as you will, distribute all en- 
joyment as you please, neither your wisdom nor your 
wealth will fill the abyss. The liberty of man is stronger 
than the institutions of society. The mind of man is 
greater than worldly goods. There will always be found 
in him more desires than social knowledge can regulate 
ro satisfy, more sufferings than it can either prevent or 
cure. 

"Religion, religion!" is the cry of universal man 
everywhere, at all times, except in some day of awful 
extremity or shameful degradation. Eeligion, to restrain 
or crown man's ambition. Eeligion, to sustain or support 
us in our griefs, whether referring to body or soul. Let 
not policy the most strong, the most just, flatter itself 
that it can effect this without religion. The greater and 
more extensive the social movement, the less able is 
it to direct tottering humanity, A higher power than 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



57 



any on earth is needed, a longer prospect than that 
of this life. God and eternity are necessary. 

We require harmony also and agreement between 
religion and policy. Called to act on the same individual, 
and as a final attempt for the same result, how can they 
work together unless possessing a common basis of 
thought, sentiments, and designs? Whatever distance 
may intervene, there is an intimate connection between 
the earthly and religious ideas of men, between their 
desires for time and those for eternity. Did incoherence 
and contradiction alone exist, were our affairs, opinions, 
and hopes here completely estranged from those beyond 
this world, were religion capable only of improving and 
sustaining our actual life and society, their ideas, works, 
institutions and manners, far from serving the cause of, 
and mutually assisting each other would reciprocally 
fetter and weaken one another. The world would jest 
at piety, piety would take offence at the world, and that 
which should be upon earth the source of order and 
peace would become a fresh spring of anarchy and war. 

And let neither religion or policy be alarmed about 
its independence and dignity. I do not wish that either 
should purchase by cowardly concession or costly sacri- 
fice the harmony which ought to prevail between them. 
On the contrary, I wish they should on all occasions act 
according to the pure truth of things, and accomplish 
together their special and peculiar mission. 

Clever men have looked upon religion as a source of 
order, a sort of social police, a useful and even indis- 



58 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



pensable matter, but otherwise without intrinsic value 
or any real and definite importance to the individual, 
unless to afford a chimerical satisfaction to certain weak- 
nesses of the human mind and heart. Thence arises a 
superficial and hjrpocritical respect, which barely covers 
a disdainful coldness ill-calculated to resist any prolonged 
trial, which humiliates religion if she is content with it, 
or otherwise irritates and misleads her. 

Great and religious men have in their turn looked on 
the world and the life of the world, either generally or 
at certain periods, as an evil in itself, an essential ob- 
stacle to the empire of divine laws, and to the accom- 
plishment of our moral destiny. Hence the follies of 
ascetics and sectarians; hence, too, theocratic preten- 
sions, pitiable mistakes of the spirit of religion, which 
has thus entered into hostility with human society, 
wishing now to flee from it, now to subdue it. 

The errors on both sides are great and dangerous. 
Religious creeds seek to solve the fundamental problems 
of our nature and individual destiny. That is their first 
and chief design, greater even in their eyes than the 
maintenance of order in society. For this reason, and 
for this reason especially, respect is due to them ; they 
deal with that which is most inward, most powerful, and 
most noble in man. And the policy which does not dis- 
cern these facts, or discerning does not respectfully bow 
before them, shows itself futile, ignorant of the nature 
of man, incapable of guiding him at moments of im- 
portance. 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



59 



On the other hand, this earth is not a place of banish- 
ment where man lives an exile. Society is not a scene 
of perdition, which a man must go through with disgust 
and terror. The earth is man's first country ; God has 
placed him here. Society is the natural condition of 
man ; God has made it for him. This world and social 
life do not bound our destiny ; but it is in this world 
and by this social life that our destiny is begun 
and developed. We owe to society our assistance, 
given affectionately and respectfully, whatever the 
form of its organisation and the difficulties of our 
task. These forms and difficulties change with places 
and times, but they possess only a secondary import- 
ance, and make no change in the general condition 
or fundamental duty of man. 

Eeligion, without being indifferent to what there is of 
true or false, good or bad, in the casual and variable 
part of the social world, attaches herself to what is essen- 
tial and permanent, training men to go straight towards 
heaven beneath every sky and by every road. 

It is the glory of Christianity to have been the first to 
place religion on this height, and in this the only religious 
point of view. And yet, neither reasons nor temptations 
were wanting at its origin, to make it denounce temporal 
society , and either separate from or declare war against it. 
Still it never dreamt of such a course. At the moment 
when the Christian faith restored to man his lost dignity 
and raised him to his forfeited position, she made herself 
liable for him without a murmur to slavery, despotism, 



60 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



iniquities, inequalities, incomparable miseries. Not 
one revolutionary intention or idea, to use a modern 
phrase, is to be traced near the cradle of Christianity. 
Christians in the name of their faith heroically resist 
persecution and tyranny, but they do not undertake to 
change the state of society or of mankind. They share 
in it, they adapt themselves to it, whatever its principles, 
forms, consequences. They do more. The world is old 
and corrupt; they denounce and vigorously resist its 
corruptions and vices: but they do not curse, they do 
not avoid the world. They view it with indignation yet 
with affection, with grief yet with hope. Kigid minds, 
ardent imaginations, take fright at the sight of the 
world, and fly to the deserts of the Thebais or retreat 
within the walls of a cloister. Brilliant apparitions are 
those who impress the minds of nations, and renew the 
well-nigh forgotten strife between austere and impure 
passions ; but these are only exceptions in the history of 
Christianity, imposing and powerful indeed, but they do 
not characterise the Christian religion, do not pre- 
dominate in it, do not constitute its essence and general 
tendency. Christianity has made monks, yet never was 
a religion less monkish. Never was a religion introduced 
into the world which entered more into it, more easily 
accommodated itself to it, to all its phases and all its 
facts. Opposed to this day in the very country which 
saw its birth, Christianity spreads to the east and west, 
to the north and south. It penetrates the old monarchies 
of Asia and the deep forests of Germany, the schools of 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



61 



Athens and of Borne, the wandering tribes of the desert ; 
and nowhere does it disturb itself about traditions, 
institutions, governments; it allies itself and lives in 
peace with the most diverse societies. It knows that 
everywhere and amidst all the variety of social forms it 
can pursue its own work, that truly religious work, the 
regeneration and safety of the soul. 

In later days, after a definite victory, amidst Eoman 
ruins and barbarian chaos, through necessity as well as 
love of power, Christianity has sought and exercised a 
more direct and commanding influence over civil society ; 
an influence sometimes salutary, sometimes opposed to 
the nature of things, and often injurious to religion 
itself. Yet taking things as a whole, and setting aside 
some remarkable deviations, the Christian Church has 
with admirable wisdom been a stranger, in her inter- 
course with the world, to all narrow and exclusive spirit ; 
has never attached to any peculiar social regime her 
honor and destiny. She has lived in kindly and intimate 
relation with the most different governments, with social 
systems the most opposed, monarchy, republic, aristocracy, 
democracy. Here on a level with the state, there sub- 
ordinate, elsewhere independent. Broad and varied in 
her internal organization, as called for by her external 
relations; always sedulous to maintain between social 
and religious life, between the ideas and feelings by 
which men hold to earth or ascend to heaven, that 
harmony by which heaven and earth both profit. In 
our days, owing to the course of events and reciprocal 



02 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



faults, tins harmony lias been profoundly affected. Reli- 
gion and society have for some time ceased to compre- 
hend and agree with each other. The ideas, sentiments, 
and interests which now prevail in temporal life are and 
have often been condemned and reproved in the name of 
those which pertain to eternal life. Religion sometimes 
pronounces her anathemas upon the new world, and 
keeps herself aloof from it. The world seems ready to 
abide by both anathema and separation. 

The evil is immense ; it is one which aggravates all 
our other ills, which takes from social order and private 
life their security and dignity, their repose and hope. 

To cure this evil, to bring together the spirit of Chris- 
tianity and the spirit of the age, the old religion and 
new society, to end their hostility, and to induce a mutual 
understanding and acceptance, is the origin of a work too 
little known, that called the " Universite Catholique" 
which its authors have continued for three years with 
the most praiseworthy perseverance. 

Thanks be theirs; thanks to men so truly pious, so 
truly catholic, who cast over new society, over constitu- 
tional France, a glance so equitable and affectionate. 
This gleam of justice towards our day, this hope loudly 
declared that it will accept eternal truth and must not be 
cursed in her name, is a proof of high intelligence on 
their part. God forbid that with frivolous blindness we 
should soothe each other with flattery. Our society 
has gone astray more than once on the most important 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 63 

matters, and even while triumphant is smitten with a 
serious disorder. And yet our time is a great time, 
which has done great things and opened great destinies. 
This society, so stormy, so confused, so tottering, some- 
times so chimerical and arrogant, sometimes so material 
aud grovelling, has nevertheless done homage and lent 
force to that which is most elevated and divine within us, 
our intelligence and justice. Much truth is contained in 
the motto of her banner; and wishing that this truth 
might be efficacious ; she has displayed, in order to make 
it penetrate into deeds, an energy and ability which have 
astonished the world and drawn it after her. Such bold- 
ness of conception, such power of execution, such a 
development of mind, of passion, of strength, so many 
results positive and visible obtained rapidly, the general 
progress of happiness, wealth, and order, of practical 
and plain justice in social relations and affairs, — is there 
nought here but error? Are these the symptoms of 
decline ? Do we not rather recognise one of those for- 
midable but beneficial crises brought on by providence 
when desirous to renew the world? Proclaim without 
reserve to society the evil it has done, the evil it is 
undergoing ; point out in all their extent and gravity its 
errors, its faults, its omissions, its weaknesses, its excesses, 
its crimes; but do not expect her to yield to injustice 
or wrong. She knows what she is and what she may 
become. The good she has devised, the good she has 
done to mankind, she would have honoured and 
loved. On these terms only will she redress and direct. 



64 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



She is in the right. One must seek for, listen to, and 
trust severe though stern friends. Confidence should 
never be placed in an enemy. 

I do not think that the authors of VUniversite Ca- 
tholique render to society all the justice it deserves; but 
they have no concealed ill-will to it, no design against 
it. They understand and admit the essential principles 
upon which it is founded, and they try seriously and 
sincerely to re-establish between these principles and 
catholic doctrines, a harmony which shall not be merely 
superficial and apparent. Their plan is simple. After 
having traced a general outline of human sciences, together 
with the ties which unite them either among themselves 
or to the sublime unity to which they tend, they place 
therein special courses for each different science of material 
as of intellectual order, and try in those courses how to 
make religion penetrate into science, how science into 
religion, keeping both in sight, so that they may recog- 
nise, approach, and unite with each other in their com- 
mon progress ; consequently their body is a dumb univer- 
sity, where all science is taught by writings according to 
and in a catholic spirit, as they would be viva voce at 
a real university, where all the professors would be 
Catholics, truly devoted to their faith and their science. 

I have no design of entering into the scientific merits 
of these courses, or of disputing all their assertions and 
ideas. Some, as the " Course of introduction to the 
study of Christian Truths," by M. l'Abbe Gerbet; the 
" Course on Christian Art," by M. Kio; the " Course on 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 65 

the General History of Hebrew Literature," by M. de 
Cazeles ; contain real instruction, elevated and ingenious 
views, and sometimes rare talent in style, and mucli 
attraction for the reader. In a literary review joined to 
these " Courses" one finds occasional articles, amongst 
others those by M. le Cornte de Montalembert, full of 
curious research and noble sentiments ; written too with 
a moral earnestness which pleases and touches, even 
when it goes beyond what is true. It would be easy to 
collect from the entire work sufficiently numerous traces 
of superficial science, somewhat vague philosophy, or 
declamatory literature. I might here and there detect, 
and this is more important, some traces of old habits, 
and of that old spirit of hostility from which the 
authors of the collection have in general tried to keep 
themselves clear. Possibly, had I the honor of seeing 
them, I might venture in the freedom of conversation to 
urge them to weigh carefully in this respect their senti- 
ments and language, to preserve constantly between 
their ideas and expressions, agreement with the general 
intentions which animate them and at which they aim. 
Let them be in this sense strict censors of their own 
work. As for me, I cannot be one ; I cannot 
seek underhand means as regards the execution of a 
great and just idea to which I wish success. I admit of 
incompleteness and imperfection, even incoherency in a 
human work, provided it be in itself good, and that good 
predominates in its effects as well as intentions. The 
pleasure of criticism is mean; and for my own part I 



66 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



feel none in pointing out faults which I should like to 
efface. 

I prefer congratulating the authors of VUniversite 
Catliolique on the firmness and fidelity with which they 
have remained faithful to their name and standard. In 
their excellent design, and on account of the conciliatory 
spirit which pervaded it, they encountered a shoal under 
their prow. They ran the danger of being induced to 
become effeminate and enervated, to pervert their own 
doctrines, the Catholic doctrines and spirit, in order to 
render their accommodation more in accordance with the 
ideas and spirit of the age. More than once analogous 
attempts, conceived in the best intentions, have split 
on this rock. It is thus that we have heard applied 
to natural religion and the general spirit of religion; 
these maxims that the dogma is of little consequence, 
the moral only being of importance, that various creeds 
must be brought back to those portions which they hold 
in common, and formulas and prayers be drawn up 
w T hich may suit all alike : thence the desire to transform 
the great principles and facts of Christianity into sym- 
bols left to the interpretations of philosophy; those 
strange efforts also to unite the revolutionary with the 
religious spirit; or, lastly, those attempts to deny, or at 
least consign to oblivion the past of the Catholic church, 
her traditions, her customs, which ages and events have 
united with her, and substitute, under the name of 
Primitive, a newly invented Catholicism. False con- 
ceptions, vain endeavours, from which pious feeling and 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



67 



a certain knowledge of our social state have not always 
been free, but which denote little knowledge of human 
nature or religion, and a superficial appreciation of the 
means by which great institutions, whether religious or 
civil, are founded and endure. No doubt but that 
Catholicism has something, has much to do in order to 
adapt itself to all that is new in the world, and to 
take in our social system the place and part suitable to 
it. But let it be true to itself, let it not deny its origin, 
its history, its doctrine, its law ; let it not stoop to 
cowardice or hypocrisy. It would lose its dignity 
which is essential to its strength, it would fail in obtain- 
ing the new strength which it needs. Were I not 
convinced that harmony may be re-established between 
the old religion and modern society with truth and 
honor to both, I would not counsel the attempt. God 
does not admit of the possibility of falsehood in such 
high positions for such great objects. 

Let, then, /' Universite Catholique proceed in its course 
of exact and scrupulous orthodoxy. It is said, I hope 
truly, that she has many of the clergy for readers. They 
should be on their guard against attacks on these points. 
Sometimes, despite appearances of moderation, the 
attempts succeed, and strike a blow on the vital con- 
ditions of their existence. By others they are drawn 
into the very passions and pursuits from which their 
mission is mainly intended to keep mankind. Generally 
such have hitherto had but little success. The most 
recent example, that of M. l'Abbe de Lamennais, has 

F 2 



68 



OX RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



eventuated in one of the most melancholy spectacles of 
error and fall that man can present. Surely there are 
here just reasons for distrust and hesitation. The 
authors of VUniversite Catholique are clearly aware of it 
themselves; for they have been careful to keep them- 
selves clear of these unhappy flights, and to remain, 
in their own words, " immovably attached to the rock 
of the Church." They doubtless are so from conviction 
and duty. They should also be so from prudence, 
and attend to all the sentiments, scruples, and suscep- 
tibilities of the Catholic portion of the public. It is this 
public especially whom they address, it is the public 
whom they wish to enlighten, satisfy, reassure, and 
reconcile with the true progress, the accomplished facts 
and necessities of our time. That is really the great 
service wanted by modern society. Let them never lose 
sight of this essential end. And as to that part of the 
public which is ruled by the spirit of the age, no doubt 
their language should reassure and quiet it also, and 
draw it back to religion, for it has very justly its own 
susceptibilities and distrusts. But let not the authors 
of VUniversite Catholique deceive themselves; they will 
inspire the public with the greater respect and confid- 
ence according as they are themselves found serious and 
faithful. The public will be the more easily attracted 
to religion, as she presents herself stable and lofty ; for, 
in the uneasiness which is now prevalent, the public 
aspire to something fixed and elevated, despite of the 
passions which still keep it wavering and abased. 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



69 



Whilst in Catholicism this new religious and social 
movement, of which V Universite Catlwlique appears to 
be the most serious manifestation, is beginning, an 
analogous work is going on in the other Christian com- 
munions, and reveals itself by remarkable signs. For 
many years something fruitful and active has been at 
work in French Protestantism. Almost immediately after 
the establishment of peace and international relations in 
1814, the English dissenters, struck by the languid state 
of religion in France, and animated by faith and a strong 
desire for proselytism, undertook the task of awaking 
amidst their continental co-religionists the religious 
spirit, or, more precisely, Protestant Christian feelings. 
Journeys, correspondence, publications, sermons, pious 
associations — of which some, as the Bible Society, the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Keligious 
Tract Society, possess extent and notoriety — were the 
instruments used to forward their design ; a design which 
excited and still excites in French Protestantism some 
trouble and embarrassment. The established Protestant 
church was moved. Indifference took offence. Toleration 
and reason felt some alarm. Impressions not altogether at 
first void of reason ; facts which deserve observation and 
watchfulness, but of which the importance in our 
society, and with the guarantees of our laws and customs, 
is, in my opinion, much less than that of the religious 
feeling which roused them, and its character and 
results. The Christian faith, the real and profound 
faith in the constituent dogmas of Christianity, is 



70 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



springing up again amidst Protestants, but accompanied 
by that liberty and assiduous search which alter the 
form of unity but keep up religious vitality ; which 
cares less for the government of men's minds than for the 
internal life of their souls. This life has its instincts, its 
imperious and everlasting wants. There is no indifference, 
no authority, which does or can abolish or cause to be 
long forgotten the essential and eternal problems of our 
nature and destiny. Whence does evil spring in the world 
and in ourselves? How is it to be escaped? Is our 
own liberty sufficient ? Is God's power over and in us 
needed? What are the relations here below and 
hereafter between God and our souls ? What lot 
awaits us beyond this life, and how far do our resolutions 
and actions influence it ? This is the definite and prac- 
tical object of religion. These the questions to which 
mankind has, through all ages, in all the earth, in every 
condition, in the confusion of controversy, in the secret 
heart desired and asked an answer. This is promised 
to him by Christianity. The dogmas of that faith are 
replies to these questions, so vital to man generally 
and individually. These replies are contained in Chris- 
tian books, and are succeeded by the precepts, the conso- 
lation, and the hopes which flow from them. To 
seek them there, to read them, to draw continually 
from that spring the means of opposing the evil 
inclinations, the passions, the weaknesses, the disquiet, 
the langour of the soul, thereby sustaining it in this 
world and regenerating it for eternity ; such is the 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 71 

Christian Protestant spirit, the spirit which is again ani- 
mating the French Protestants ; the spirit which has had 
and may again have its faults, like all great ambitions 
and all great aspirations of the human soul, but which is 
nevertheless a spirit of true piety and true morality ; 
which suffices for our most exalted intellects, and exer- 
cises for all, in all, the most salutary influence over our 
inward dispositions and outward actions. 

Many periodical works, amongst them the Semeur* 
and the Archives of Christianity in the XIX. Century, 
are devoted to this spirit, and seek to satisfy and spread 
it. In them all publications, all the incidents which 
belong at home or abroad to Christian life, are examined, 
commented on, debated with a reality and earnestness of 
conviction always rare, but now especially so. Men of 
rare ability, too, and first of all M. Vinet, professor of 
French literature at Lausanne, write for the Semeur, and 
often with the most distinguished talent. I might find in 
these works, even without going very deeply into the 
question of their doctrines, some traces of political 
radicalism, very injurious to religion; and also, in mat- 
ters of religion, traces of a severe and somewhat exclu- 
sive spirit, which, when dominant, tends to sectarianism 
and fanaticism. But clearly here as elsewhere the 
good spirit of the age, the spirit of light, of justice, and 
universal benevolence will every day make its way; 
will clothe the religious spirit of ideas and sentiments in 
words which will suit them admirably, but which they 

* The Semeur has ceased to appear. 



72 ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 

have not always worn. And thus here as elsewhere 
I prefer dwelling on what is good to what is evil. When 
the movement which is good preponderates, I believe 
in its power ; I trust to it, strenuous as may be the oppo- 
sition, tardy as its progress may appear. 

Have we not besides, in liberty, liberty of conscience 
and speech, the most certain and efficacious of guarantees 
against fanaticism and religious despotism. L'Universite 
Catholique maintains, and will unceasingly uphold the 
maxims, traditions, and laws of Catholicism. At her side, 
the spirit of Protestantism reveals herself full of faith and 
vigour. And as in the bosom of Protestantism the 
Semeur and the Archives of Christianity do not express 
the feelings of all, other collections — the Protestant 
Review, the Free Enquiry, the Evangelist — labour to 
make clear and nourish another idea, more scientific, 
more attached to modern notions and a national church, 
more occupied in enlightening than deeply stirring the 
mind 

I do not doubt but that, in this fresh springing up 
of different beliefs, men interested in their success, 
and the different sections of the public whom they 
address, reciprocally inspire but little mistrust or dis- 
quiet; that the remembrance of ancient dislikes, ancient 
animosity still lurk in many a heart, and may break out 
afresh. It may be occasionally discerned, with all its 
want of reflection and its harshness. However, take it 
altogether, the spirit of antipathy and contest, which 
has so long prevailed in the religious sphere, is becom- 



ON RELIGION IN MODERN SOCIETIES. 



73 



ing weaker and less common. Each creed is more occupied 
about itself than about others ; more anxious to impress 
the hearts that are inclined to its reception or have re- 
ceived it, than quarrel with those who maintain their own 
belief. This is the natural result of liberty, and the 
check imposed on every belief by the civil power which 
sustains it. It is also the most favourable condition for 
the very creeds themselves, as obliging them to proceed 
directly towards their true object, and prevents them 
from turning aside to alter or lower themselves in despo- 
tism or rebellion. 

The spirit of religion comes again into the world to 
conquer but not to usurp. Religious creeds rise and 
increase together, at once free and contented ; free to 
elevate themselves, to elevate souls to heaven, restrained 
by their mental liberty and by the independence of the 
civil power. Let us honor the community in the bosom 
of which such a sight is possible ! It needs, it absolutely 
needs that religion should step in to purify and 
strengthen it ; but religion can do her work there without 
dishonor or sacrifice, and when she can, it becomes her 
bounden duty to do so. 



ESSAY 



III. 



CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, AND 
PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE. 



[ 77 ] 



CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, AND 
PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE. 

{July, 1838.) 

It is of Catholicism and Protestantism, not of religion 
or even Christianity in general, that I wish to speak. 

I regret that I cannot find a word to suit me better 
than Philosophy. The nature of things forbids it. But 
in order to make myself at once and clearly understood, 
I hasten to say that I here call Philosophy every 
opinion which disclaims, under whatever name or shape, 
any faith as restrictive of human thought, and which 
leaves thought, in religious matters as in all others, 
free to believe or not to believe, and guide itself by 
its own authority. 

It is also of France, and France alone, that I speak. 
The condition of Catholicism, Protestantism, and Phi- 
losophy is not the same in France and elsewhere, after 
our moral and social revolutions, as it is in countries 
which have not undergone such changes. I wish to 
say nothing but that which results from and applies to 
precise facts. The time has arrived in such matters for 
dealing with real facts, and setting aside general terms 
which avoid the questions they affect to settle. 



78 



CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, AND 



I am convinced that Catholicism, Protestantism, and 
Philosophy, in the bosom of the novel state of society 
in France under the Charter, can live peaceably, both 
as regards themselves and society ; in peace not only 
material but moral, not only obligatory but voluntary, — 
without submission, without abasement, — both with 
truth and with honor. 

I wish to prove it. 

I repeat my first position. This peace must be 
established; it is necessary. 
Look at the state of things. 

Catholicism, Protestantism, Philosophy, and modern 
French society can neither destroy one another, nor 
change nor remodel themselves as they wish. 

They are facts, old, powerful, living, and indestruc- 
tible from the remotest times. They have resisted the 
longest and most severe trials, ages of order and days 
of chaos. 

For ages has new France, the France of the Charter, 
been forming itself and increasing. Every thing has 
opposed it, yet everything has contributed to its triumph , 
the church, nobility, royalty, the court, the greatness 
of Louis XIV., the inactivity of Louis XV., the wars 
of the empire, the peace after the restoration. She has 
surmounted even her own faults, as well as the efforts 
of her enemies. 

Catholicism was born at the same time and in the 
same cradle as modern Europe. It has associated itself 
with all the labours of European civilization. It has 



PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE. 



79 



survived all its transformations. In our own days it 
has sustained the most terrible shock that has ever been 
encountered by a creed and a church. It has been 
raised up again by the hands of the very destroj^ers 
themselves. It appears again. Enter the family circle, 
traverse the country, then will be seen what the power 
of Catholicism is, in spite of the lukewarmness of many 
of the faithful members — even of many of the priests. 

The lot of Protestantism in France has been hard. 
It has had against it the king and the people, the literati 
of the seventeenth, the philosophers of the eighteenth 
century; at one time it appeared as if extirpated by 
Catholicism, at another as absorbed by philosophy. 
It has yielded neither to persecution nor ridicule. It 
still exists, and is no sooner restored to liberty than it 
exhibits all its ancient fervour. 

As for Philosophy, she has sustained many checks 
amidst her triumphs. It is easy to set forth her follies 
and mistakes. She has much to amend in what is past, 
but nothing to fear for the future. Most of the principles 
which she proclaimed have become rights. The rights 
have become facts. The new social condition to which 
philosophy has given rise will not be more averse to her 
than the old one which she has overcome. 

These are all clearly powers full of life, and which a 
long futurity awaits. They have struggled roughly but 
in vain. They have been unable to destroy each other. 

They will neither change or perish. No doubt 
they will modify themselves according to their new 



80 



CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, AND 



position. They will listen to reason. They will bow 
to necessity, but without renouncing their principles 
or sacrificing their nature. They can make no such 
concession. What characteristics and vitality they have 
must remain. To renounce this would be to die. 

Thus, without metamorphosis and as God and time 
have made them, are these powers called to dwell side 
by side under the same social roof. 

What will happen if they do not live in peace, sincere 
peace ? 

Shall we again see the old wars which our fathers 
have seen? 

War between Catholicism and Protestantism? Be- 
tween religious creeds and philosophy? Between the 
Church and the new-modelled State ? Shall we see a 
revival of every fanaticism, lay and clerical, philosophic 
and religious? 

It is not likely. Here and there, indeed, in books, in 
newspapers, even in the gravest publications, hints are 
given of such a restoration of things: attacks by Ca- 
tholics on Protestant impiety, by Protestants against 
popish idolatry, by devotees against reason and its 
lights, by philosophers against faith and the clergy. A 
war of words, often sincere, frequently cold, always pow- 
erless. Doubtless, the old leaven of hatred and war, 
deep laid in every human heart, still exists, but it will 
no more arouse society. Customs as well as laws will 
prevent this. Even the inclination will soon fail those 
most anxious for it. The voices which still preach this 



PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE. 



81 



strife, passionate, radical, and mortal, either of Christian 
communities between themselves, or of Philosophy against 
Christianity, are the voices of dying men, already de- 
serted on the battle-field where they persist in staying. 
This is rather what will happen. 

Living neither in peace nor at war, forced to admit 
vicinity without friendship, and distrust without vio- 
lence, Catholicism, Protestantism, Philosophy, and in 
their train society in general, will descend, grow cold, 
and languish. The dignity and power which spring from 
truly moral communications will be equally wanting in 
all. A dry and barren spirit will prevail in relations 
which are purely official and matters of routine; and 
we should see spreading and strengthening itself, becom- 
ing permanent and in some sort legally consecrated, that 
spirit of indifference at the same time disdainful yet 
subordinate, cold yet insecure. This is the lot of 
societies which are kept together by the bond of admi- 
nistrative regulations alone, void of moral life, that is, 
of faith and devotion. 

Was it then to arrive at this state of things, that for 
ages human genius displayed itself so gloriously in our 
country ? Was it to end at last in this degradation that 
all the great creeds, all the moral forces, have contended 
with so much eagerness and glory for the empire of our 
society ? 

They must save it and themselves from this disgrace- 
ful peril. They must accept, respect, and loyally serve 
the new social state ; they must learn to live amicably 
together in its bosom. 

•G 



82 



CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, AXD 



I say they must! It is an immense point in a great 
work to look upon success as indispensable and vital. 
The feeling of necessity gives to those whom that 
necessity pleases, much power; to the opposite party 
much resignation. A passionate desire supports even 
more than it deceives. And here there is indeed room 
for such a desire ; for, during a long future, the honor 
and moral repose of society are at stake. It cannot 
remain in this state of apathy and uneasiness in which 
the mind languishes and exhausts itself. Man desires 
for his soul more activity and more security, a firmer 
ground, a higher flight. The true agreement of the great 
intellectual powers can alone grant him these. 

How can this be accomplished? 

I grapple at once with the more notorious and serious 
of the difficulties, — the nature of Catholicism and the 
conditions of its agreement with the new state of 
society which has attacked it, and been in its turn 
so roughly attacked. 

I set aside, too, without hesitation, the questions of 
religion, properly so called; questions which concern 
the dealings of God with man, questions about the 
safety of the human soul. 

Not that I look on them with indifference, or that 
their importance is not now as it has always been, 
overwhelming and immense. It ought, on the contrary, 
to be frequently repeated, for in our clay it has been too 
much forgotten, and it is the real object, and substance, 
nay, the essence of religion. The moral quality, the rule 
of conduct for man in his relations with man, is impor- 



PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE. 



83 



tant. The mental calm and resignation of men in the 
trials of life is important. The Christian religion teaches 
these, and thence its great position upon earth and in 
society. But it does more, it goes far beyond human 
society and this world. It binds man to God, it reveals 
to him the secret of this awful tie, it teaches him what 
he ought to believe and do in respect to his relation to 
God and his prospect of eternity. Imperishable things 
from which man may turn aside his gaze, but which do 
not disappear from his nature; sublime wants from 
which he cannot free himself, though he may mistake 
and deny them — the law of these things, the satisfying 
of these wants, that is to say, the dogma and its conse- 
quences, constitute the Christian religion, the first which 
has really understood and embraced its object. 

But in these questions and in the dogmas which reply 
to them, nothing can now arouse between Catholicism and 
civil society either conflict or embarrassment. In this 
matter, the State proclaims not only the liberty but the 
right of the church, and declares itself absolutely 
incompetent to interfere. And here lies whatever truth 
exists in that deplorable and confused saying which has 
excited so much comment, " The law is atheistical'' 
Surely not so. The law is not atheistical. How 
should it be so? Is the law a real living being, a 
being with a soul which approaches to or recedes from 
God, which may be lost or saved? "Human societies," 
says M. Royer Collard, "live and die on the earth, 
there they fulfil their destinies." But they do not com- 

G 2 



84 CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, AND 

pvehend man as an entire. After he has bound himself 
to society there still remains to him the noblest part of 
himself, the high faculties by which he raises himself 
to God, to a future life, to unknown good in an invisible 
world. We, as individuals, as beings endowed with 
immortality, have a different destiny from states. 

And it is on this account that the State should not 
interfere with that other destiny. As its nature and 
aim are different from her own, as the two have nothing 
in common, to interfere must produce confusion and 
usurpation. 

That which the state now proclaims was taught to it 
by the Church, the Catholic Church. During centuries 
when the state wished to interfere in matters of opinion 
and salvation, did not the Church distinctly reject such 
pretensions. And how did she do so ? By the distinc- 
tion of temporal and spiritual, of terrestrial and eternal 
life, that is, by the incompetence of the state to deal 
with the relations of the soul with God. 

And the Catholic Church was right in sustaining this 
principle, the forgetfulness of which has cost her much. 
How did she lose a portion of her empire ? How came 
Henry VIII. amongst others to separate from her? By 
proclaiming the temporal power competent to matters of 
faith and salvation. Let Catholicism go back to the 
sixteenth century, to the history of the reformation. 
It is by the confusion of the two powers, by this 
religious competence of the state, that she has suffered 
the rudest shocks. The Catholic Church has no more 



PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE. 



85 



dangerous enemies than lay theologians, whether princes 
or doctors. 

They are the more dangerous foes because religious 
motives are not those which alone may animate them, 
and lay usurpations in matters of faith have often 
served as a veil to the most worldly interests. Had 
the religious incompetence of the state always been 
acknowledged, the church would not so often have seen 
her property as well as her power in danger or lost. 

She has henceforth nothing similar to fear. Usurpa- 
tion is on both sides forbidden. Her kingdom belongs 
to herself alone; she possesses it completely and se- 
curely. 

On this side, the great side of christian religion in 
this world, peace is easy and may be sincere between 
Catholicism and the new social state. 

Let us see where the real difficulty exists. 

The government of the Catholic Church is a power 
invested in her own domain, and in matters of faith and 
salvation, with the character of infallibility. 

I put aside, great as they are, all secondary questions, 
such as the knowledge of the conditions and limits in 
which infallibility exists, to whom it belongs, to the 
Holy Seat or to Councils, or to the Holy Seat and Councils 
united. I look to the one principle which is found in 
every combination and form of Catholic belief. 

The principle itself is founded on the perpetuity of 
divine revelation, faithfully preserved in the church by 
means of tradition, and renewed when needful by the 



86 CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, AND 

inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which ceases not to de- 
scend on the successor of St. Peter who was placed at 
the head of the church by Jesus Christ himself. 

This is the essential and vital principle, the base and 
summit, the Alpha and Omega of Catholicism. 

Against a power of such a nature and origin, where it 
really manifests itself, all discussion, resistance, and sepa- 
ration are unlawful. 

The new state of society and constitutional France 
has its principle also, which has become that of its 
government. 

All human power is fallible, and must be controlled 
and limited. 

Every human society has the right of controlling and 
limiting, directly and indirectly, in such and such 
measures, and under such or such form, the power 
which it obeys. 

I do not soften the problem. I set forth the two princi- 
ples. They are essentially different ; they are said to be 
hostile. 

They would be so indeed, could they meet and display 
themselves in the same sphere. But here I find the 
remedy I sought. 

When ages ago the church so loudly and vehemently 
insisted on the distinction of the spiritual and temporal, 
she was acting in the interest of her own dignity and 
founding her own liberty. She was doing more. She 
thereby maintained the dignity of man, and laid the 
foundations of liberty of conscience. 



PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE. 



87 



The separation of spiritual from temporal, the doctrine 
of the church ; and the separation of the religious and 
civil state, the doctrine of our constitutional regime ; 
the independence of religious society in matters of faith, 
conquered by the church in the earlier days of modern 
Europe; and liberty of conscience, a victory achieved 
by modern society, — have one and the same principle at 
the root. The application and form may be different, 
the origin and moral signification entirely agree. 

Hence the means of peace and harmony between 
Catholicism and our new society. 

Suppose that the two principles, the separation of 
spiritual and temporal, of the religious and civil state, 
were (and it is possible, since at the root they agree) 
sincerely and completely allowed, respected and practised 
by church and state ; whence would the conflict spring ? 

The Catholic church would loudly maintain her in- 
fallibility in the religious sphere, that is, as regards the 
connexion between spiritual power and the faithful. 
The state would insist upon liberty of conscience and 
thought in the social sphere, that is, in the relations of 
the temporal power with the citizens. Each power 
would advance according to its principles, parallel, and 
without collision. 

What then is the obstacle ? 

It is rather historical than reasonable. It arises from 
the passed deeds and ancient life of the two powers, 
rather than from their essential principles and actual 
relations. 



88 



CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, AND 



The separation of the spiritual and temporal originates 
in the chaos of the middle ages. It sprung from thence, 
as the sun appears through a dark and stormy sky. 
Principles and powers, ideas and situations, all have 
been in our Europe wonderfully obscure, confused, inco- 
herent, incomplete. There has long been a depth of 
temporal affairs mixed with spiritual, spiritual with 
temporal, in the existence and constitution of the church 
and state. Hence the temptations and attempts, both 
frequent and terrible, at reciprocal usurpation. The con- 
fusion of facts and violence of passions struggled in- 
cessantly against the principle which strove to restrain 
them. 

That is the lot of truth here. It is boasted of but dis- 
dained, invoked yet rejected, at once admitted and pro- 
scribed; here supreme, there powerless. Man deserves 
no better, the world fares no better than that. 

However, after many efforts on certain memorable 
days some truth does detach itself, and rises so high that 
she shines brightly and commands respect. 

The separation of the spiritual and temporal has had 
this fortune. Church and state, bishops and philosophers, 
opinion and law have contributed in turn to secure it for 
her. It is a principle now so well established amongst 
us, that neither persons nor things, neither mind nor art, 
could be kept long clear from its influence. 

Since the great ambitions which have disturbed the 
world be but foolish pretensions, it behoves them care- 
fully to avoid the last risk they can run, that of becom- 



PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE. 



89 



ing ridiculous squabbles. Let the two powers, instead 
of painfully lowering themselves to seize though but 
for a few days, some fragments from the past confu- 
fusion, admit fully both as regards right and deed their 
mutual incompetence ; let each establish itself firmly in 
its special sphere, let each loudly proclaim its princi- 
ple — the Catholic church, its infallibility in religious 
orders; the State, the liberty of thought in social con- 
cerns. Not only will they then live in peace, but they 
will respect and serve themselves really in spirit and in 
truth, and not in a superficial appearance which is un- 
worthy of both. 

I say they will respect each other in spirit and in 
truth, and I regret that I can bat glance at the subject. 
Certainly, setting aside all faith and law, the vital prin- 
ciple of Catholicism, the religious infallibility of the 
church, — and the vital principle of our civil society, the 
liberty of conscience and thought, — have a right to the 
respect, the former of the boldest thinkers, the latter of 
the most pious and the strictest minds. But I have not 
room here to enter suitably on such a question ; I may 
attempt it some day. 

As to the practical benefits of a true pacification to 
the Catholic Church and to constitutional France, they 
are immense. What is the prevailing ill of our temporal 
society ? 

The weakening of authority. I do not allude to that 
strength which insists on being obeyed. Never had 
power greater command of it ; never perhaps so much. I 



90 CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, AND 

allude to that authority recognized beforehand on prin- 
ciple in a general way, received and felt as a right which 
is not obliged to resort to torce ; that authority before 
which the spirit bows without abasement of heart, and 
which speaks from on high with the influence not of 
constraint, but nevertheless of necessity. 

That is truly authority. It is not the only principle 
of the social state. It does not suffice for the govern- 
ment of men. But without it nothing will suffice; 
neither argument unceasingly persevered in, nor well- 
understood interest, nor the material preponderance of 
numbers. Where authority is wanting, whatever the 
force, obedience is precarious or mean, even near the 
extreme of rebellion or of servility. Catholicism has 
the essence of authority; it is authority itself, system- 
atically conceived and organised. It lays it down in 
principle, and puts it in practice with great firmness of 
teaching, and a rare intelligence of human nature. 

Did this spirit prevail in our society, or did it lean 
towards it, there would be need to seek elsewhere 
counterbalances and limits. But the danger is clearly 
not there; and whilst our institutions and manners 
cherish in us the spirit of individual independence in 
thought as well as life, it is a great blessing to society, 
to its morality as well as its repose, that other causes, 
other methods of teaching maintain the principle of 
authority and the spirit of internal submission. 

" I learnt in the army what one learns no where else 
— respect f said an old retired non-commissioned officer 
of the Imperial Guard, in 1820. 



PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE. 



91 



Catholicism is the greatest, the most holy school of 
respect that the world has ever seen. France was brought 
up in this school, in spite of the ill use which human 
passions have often made of her precepts. The abuse is 
now little formidable ; the benefit ought to be great, for 
we have great need of it. 

Catholicism itself is suffering at present from a grievous 
malady. 

This is the prevailing coldness and routine, the pre- 
dominance of form over foundation, of external practice 
over internal feelings. 

This arises from the often hypocritical incredulity of 
the eighteenth century, not very distant from the nine- 
teenth ; and also from the preponderance, which has long 
been excessive, in the church, of the government over the 
vital principle, of ecclesiastical authority over religious 
life. 

Some analogy existed in this respect between the 
church and state in the last century. On both sides 
power was afoot with its old organization, in the hands 
of its former possessors; but amongst the subjects there 
was little faith and little love. 

What is it, nevertheless, that has saved Catholicism 
from shipwreck ? It is that it was a popular religion and 
faith. The Catholic government yielded, the Catholic 
people survived. M. de Monlosier was right; in our 
days, too, it was the cross of wood which saved the 
world. 

The safety is yet incomplete. The church has risen, 



92 CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, AND 

but many a soul languishes. Catholicism needs faith, a 
more inward and lively faith. 

It is the vague and ill-regulated feeling of this want, 
which has for some time inspired those dreams of absolute 
independence, of rupture between church and state, those 
shiverings of the fever of democracy, which, under the 
name of M. l'Abbe de Lamennais, have scandalised the 
faithful and made the indifferent smile. 

Mad, shameful dreams which urge Catholicism to 
abjure her principles and history, to hand herself over 
to the contagion of modern evil and to dishonour while 
she destroys herself. 

It is not in such devious ways that Catholicism will 
find religious life. This will, on the contrary, be found 
by her remaining faithful to herself in the new position 
frankly accepted. This position is worthy, strong, favor- 
able to the progress of faith and fervour. It possesses 
towards the state a fair measure of liberty and alliance, 
towards the faithful the suitable independence as well as 
the needful intimacy; no evil hopes, no worldly dis- 
tractions, nothing which can render zeal impure or even 
suspected ; but nothing, on the other hand, which attacks 
the traditions or customs of the Church, nothing which 
tends to deprive it of the august character of elevation 
and stability. The Catholic Church is thus placed in 
constitutional France ; and success, religious and social, 
belong to the use of proper measures, as by proper mea- 
sures success is certain. 

The situation of Protestantism is more simple : some 



PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE. 



93 



persons even affect to consider it more favourable. The 
general feeling which prevails in our days, our political 
and domestic alliances, the analogy of principle between 
constitutional France and Protestant England, all seem 
to say that Protestantism is in favour. There are some 
even who pretend to the discovery of a plot to make 
France Protestant. 

This does not deserve even a passing remark. 

There was a time, not very distant, when Protestantism 
did not seem so well placed in France. I do not speak 
of the Restoration ; even under the empire it was often 
said that Protestantism had a republican tendency, that 
her maxims were contrary to stability and power. The 
spirits of Protestantism and revolution were considered 
as related. 

This is still repeated. It has become a party theme ; 
and Protestantism is perseveringly represented as incom- 
patible with social order, peaceful dispositions, and 
monarchy. 

Happily, Protestantism is not a thing of yesterday in 
Europe ; it appeals to history and facts for a reply. 

If there be any where three countries which, for fifty 
years, amidst the overthrow of ideas, states, and dynas- 
ties have given striking proofs of affection for their insti- 
tutions and princes, for the conservative and monarchical 
spirit, they are assuredly England, Holland, Prussia — 
three Protestant countries, the three Protestant countries 
par excellence in Europe; countries, too, wonderful for 
order, for industry, and for prosperity ; countries which 



94 CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, AND 

greatly conduce to the power and glory of modern 
civilization. There can be no more decisive answer to 
the worn out declamations of ancient party spirit, nor 
do they deserve more ample discussion. 

French Protestantism is peculiarly free from this 
ridiculous reproach. It has not been remarkable for 
receiving too much protection or justice. It enjoys them 
as a new acquisition, with modesty and gratitude. 
Never was a religious society disposed to evince towards 
the civil power greater deference and respect. 

Protestantism, by a singular amalgamation, has been 
blamed for too much deference even in this respect. It 
has been accused of lowering religion, and making the 
church subservient to the state. This, it is said, is the 
consequence of the fall of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the 
great governing power of the Catholic church, which 
Protestantism has attacked. Thus the division between 
spiritual and temporal has disappeared ; the spiritual has 
fallen under the yoke of the civil power. 

I have already said sufficient of the separation of 
spiritual and temporal, to avoid the suspicion of thinking 
ill of it. It is one of the most glorious forms which, in 
modern Europe, the independence of thought and faith 
has assumed. It is the principle in virtue of which 
Catholicism must, in the midst of modern institutions 
and ideas, assume a worthy and secure place. 

But in spiritual as in temporal order, it is necessary 
that liberty have but one aspect and be exclusively 
attached to this or that combination. Religion has more 



PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE. 



95 



than one method of preserving her dignity and indepen- 
dence ; God plants it and causes it to prosper in more 
than one soil, in more than one climate. 

In fact, taking things together, faith has been strong, 
and conscience has displayed itself with energy in Pro- 
testant countries, in spite of the doubtful lines of demar- 
cation between the two domains, and the too frequent 
intervention of the civil power in religious matters. 

This is because the civil power has never made re- 
ligious matters its chief concern. Politics, governments, 
properly so called, have absorbed its attention and 
power. Sooner or later, it has ended by leaving con- 
sciences to themselves ; it has, at all events, left the reins 
more loose and the field more free than has been the 
case in Catholic countries, where there has been a power 
devoted to the sole task of ruling spiritual society. 

Thus, too, there is in every society, political or 
religious, a certain intimate and permanent tendency 
which gets the better of all forms of organization and 
all accidents of situation. Protestantism sprang from 
free enquiry. It is her standard. It has never been 
abandoned by her, whatever share she may have taken 
in the civil rule ; I will go so far as to say, the civil 
despotism. In short, human thought, in religion as in 
every other matter, has displayed itself with infinite 
activity and freedom in Protestant countries. 

Do we forget, besides, the first and most powerful 
cause of spiritual independence ? It is that Protestantism, 
— she cannot avoid it, — admits into her bosom great 



96 CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, AND 

differences of faitfi and practice, dissents, separations, 
sects in short. She may have often condemned and 
persecuted them, but she has never deemed herself 
obliged to curse and extirpate them. They have lived 
and multiplied under Protestantism, in the teeth of the 
national church ; ill-treated, humiliated, but never forced 
from some last retreat; always, to a certain degree, 
protected by the spirit of free enquiry, its examples and 
recollections. This affords a strong pledge for liberty of 
conscience, and opens an asylum to all who may have 
been attacked or vexed on account of their faith by the 
civil power. If the Anglican church has, with some 
justice, though much exaggeration, been accused of com- 
plaisance towards the temporal sovereign, the English 
dissenters have, on the other hand, unceasingly pro- 
claimed their haughty independence of her. The shield 
which the Catholic church has found in the separation 
of the spiritual and temporal, has been found by Protes- 
tantism in the freedom, even though incomplete, of re- 
ligious dissent and the multiplicity of sects. 

And as a just reward for this dawn of liberty, the 
Protestant sects are not so widely severed as they appear 
to be from the national Church and the State. Perse- 
cuted, irritated, even rebellious, they have nevertheless 
strongly adhered, with hidden yet deep feeling, to the 
common centre of belief and the public destiny. An 
ardent Puritan was, under Queen Elizabeth, sent to 
the pillory and condemned to have his hand cut off. 
The hand falls ; with his left, he raises his large hat, 



PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE. 



97 



crying " God save the Queen !" Almost invariably in 
critical circumstances, when the vital interests of the 
national religion or of the country appeared to be com- 
promised, the English dissenters have rallied round the 
state, and though forsaking her religious banner, have 
still served her with exemplary devotion. 

I have little taste for sectarian spirit, but never should 
Protestantism when in power set up as a national church, 
and treat dissenters with rigour or disdain ; for it owes 
in part to them the maintenance of its dignity, as well as 
the fervour of faith and the progress of liberty of con- 
science. Above all, never should our constitutional 
monarchy trouble itself about dissent, should it one 
day arise, in French Protestantism. It could not 
possess political importance, or tend to weaken the tie 
which binds the Protestants of France to the new social 
condition and its governing power. 

Protestantism, while free from political danger, has, in 
a purely religious point of view, much good to do in 
France ; not by drawing France to her standard, by con- 
verting her, to use the customary phrase. Conversions 
on either side are and will henceforward be few, and the 
importance which some persons attach to them as a 
matter of joy or regret is somewhat puerile. It is a step 
and a most important step for the individuals, but one 
of no social moment. France will not become Protest- 
ant. Protestantism will not become extinct in France. 
One reason among many is decisive. The struggle of 

H 



98 CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, AND 

these days of ideas and empire is not between Catho- 
licism and Protestantism. Impiety and immorality are 
the enemies which both have to resist. To restore the 
spirit of religion is the work to which both are called. 
The work, like the evil, is immense. A slight probing 
of the wound, a short but serious glance at the moral 
state of the masses of men, whose minds are so fluctu- 
ating, whose hearts so empty, who desire so much and 
hope so little, who pass so rapidly from the excitement 
of fever to mental torpor, — and the observer will be 
penetrated with sadness and alarm. Catholics or Pro- 
testants, priests or laymen, be ye whom ye may, do not, 
if believers, be uneasy about each other; reserve that 
for those who believe not. There is the field for work, 
there the harvest. The field is open to Protestantism as 
to Catholicism ; work will not be wanting to either ; 
each has the aptitude and peculiar qualities to enable 
it to labour with success. 

We suffer from very different moral complaints. 

Some are above all things wearied and disgusted with 
the uncertainty and disorder of mens minds. They 
need a harbour sheltered from every point, a light 
which is ever steady, a guiding hand which never 
trembles. They ask from religion rather support to 
weakness than aliment for activity. They require her, 
while elevating, to sustain them; while touching their 
hearts, to keep down their understandings; while ani- 
mating their inward life, to give them at the same time, 
and above all else, a deep sense of security. 



PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE. 



99 



Catholicism is wonderfully adapted to this frame of 
mind, now so common. She has gratifications for de- 
sires, remedies for suffering. She knows how at once to 
subdue and to please. Her grasp is strong, her prospects 
full of charm for the imagination. She excels in occu- 
pying while soothing the soul, which she suits after 
periods of great fatigue ; for without leaving it cold or 
idle, she saves it much trouble, and undertakes for it the 
burden of responsibility. 

For another class of minds, though also suffering and 
separated from religion, more intellectual and physical 
activity is required. They too feel the need of return- 
ing to God and the faith ; but they are used to examine 
everything themselves, and only to receive that which 
they acquire by their own labour. They wish to shun 
incredulity, but liberty is dear to them ; there is in their 
religious tendency more thirst than lassitude. To such, 
Protestantism may gain access, for while it speaks to 
them of piety and faith, it encourages and invites them 
to make use of their reason and liberty. It has been 
accused of coldness. That is a mistake. In ceaselessly 
appealing to free and personal examination it takes deep 
root in the soul, and becomes easily an inward faith, in 
which the activity of the understanding keeps up instead 
of extinguishing the fervour of the heart. And hence 
its connexion with the modern spirit, which formerly in 
its youth was at the same time reasoning and enthu- 
siastic, eager for conviction as for liberty, and which, 
despite its momentary quiescence, has retained its old 
nature and will infallibly resume its double character. 



100 CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, AND 

Catholicism and Protestantism must never lose sight 
of our system of society, for it is on this that they must 
work. Let each of them appeal to it in its own way, 
looking for and attending to the wounds or wants for 
the cure or satisfaction of which they are best calculated. 
That is their true, their efficacious and disinterested 
mission, not looking at each other and seeking a renewal 
of controversy. 

In general, I believe controversy is but of little use, 
and has little religious effect. In every age it has taken 
but a small part in the triumph of great moral truths. 
They establish themselves, especially at their first ap- 
pearing, by direct and dogmatic exposition. We have 
in the gospels the most remarkable and august example. 
From their earliest day, neither motive or occasion of 
controversy was wanting with Jew or pagan. Yet we 
scarcely meet with it in the preaching either of Jesus 
Christ or of the apostles. They lay down their rule of 
faith, their precepts ; they knock without ceasing at the 
doors of the hearts which they desire to enter. They 
do not trouble themselves to argue with their adversaries. 
Controversy arises later, and when it does, it soon dis- 
figures the truth, for it distributes it in fragments among 
parties, sects, men; and each holds fast, with the 
intractable blindness of self-love, to the fragment which 
has fallen to his lot, in which he wishes to see, and 
that others should see, truth in her entirety. 

Let them keep clear of controversy ; let them attend 
little to each other, much to themselves and their task. 



PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE. 



101 



Catholicism and Protestantism will then dwell peaceably, 
not only within its new state, but together. 

I know that this peace will not be that spiritual unity 
which has been so talked of. Spiritual unity, beautiful 
in itself, is in this world chimerical ; and from chimerical 
it becomes tyrannical. 

As finite and free beings, that is to say, incomplete 
and fallible, unity escapes us, and we constantly miss it. 

Harmony in liberty is the only unity to which men 
here below can pretend. Or, rather, it is for them the 
best, the only mode of elevation towards that true unity 
which all violence, all constraint, — that is, every inva- 
sion of spiritual by material order, — throws back and 
obscures, under the pretext of attaining it. 

Harmony in liberty is the spirit of Christianity. 
It is charity united with zeal. It is also the object of 
philosophy, for it is the true, the moral sense of the 
principle of toleration and equal protection of the rites 
of worship ; a principle which impiety has violated by 
trying to set it up as the standard of indifference and 
contempt for religion, but which allies itself wondrously 
with zeal and faith, for on their right it is itself 
founded. 

The alliance must be ratified. I say must in conclud- 
ing, as I did when beginning. Peace between religious 
creeds is now imposed on all alike by our social con- 
dition. Harmony in liberty is their legal condition, 
their charter. Let them yield to it in spirit as in act ; 
let them love it while obeying it. I fear not the fate of 



102 CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, AND 



a false prophet, when I predict that religion will be 
thereby as great a gainer as society. 

As to Philosophy, she has in our days the glory of 
not having remained a Utopia. From discoveries she 
has proceeded to conquests. She has metamorphosed 
her ideas into facts and institutions; a formidable 
change, as it reveals not only the errors of the first 
thought, but for a time misleads and corrupts it by 
plunging it into the vortex of human passions ; never- 
theless a great glory, and one which assigns to philoso- 
phy a high position in the new social state. 

It is a rare privilege to be able, without embarrass- 
ment, worthily to acknowledge and abjure error. Phi- 
losophy can do this, for, politically speaking, victory 
belongs to her, and not only victory but power. Though 
much self-deceived, she has done much. She has reason 
for pride as well as for modesty. She can afford to show 
herself just, benevolent, and respectful to her former 
adversaries. She cannot be charged with weakness or 
cowardice. 

Practically, experience has enlightened her. She 
knows better than she did the true condition of morality 
and human society. She knows that she herself is not 
all-sufficient, that she suffices not entirely for souls or 
nations, that in human nature and in the general course 
of affairs the share due to religion is immense, and that 
philosophy should not contest it with her. 

To go still deeper, philosophy herself is about to 
become seriously and sincerely religious. Like Catholic- 



PHILOSOPHY IN FRANCE. 



103 



ism, like Protestantism, she cannot change her nature, 
she must remain philosophy, that is to say free and 
independant thought, whatever her field of action. 
But as regards religious questions, she sees that she has 
often been short-sighted and hasty, that neither impiety 
nor indifference constitutes true knowledge, that the 
proudest spirit may humble itself before God, and that 
there is philosophy in faith itself. 

All this is still very vague, and I speak but vaguely 
of it. However, so it is. It is on this slope that philo- 
sophy is now placed, and along it that she must hereafter 
advance. Her future must be great in the midst of 
that society which she has formed. The future must 
be great for spiritual order as a whole, religious and 
philosophical. May this destiny be accomplished ! May 
spiritual order recover her activity and renown, with 
a peace and harmony hitherto unknown. Therein 
consists the dignity of man ! therein the strength of 
society. 



END. 



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